The Pheonix Rogue Trader
by Killagane The Demon of Heaven
Summary: Raiser Phenex through a twist of fate and machination of Eldritch beings has become a Rogue Trader serving the Emperor. He is task with the saving the Imperium from its decent into doom and explore the Multiverse. He now has to juggle building his peerage and using his skills to get the best deal possible. He is a Rogue Trader and he is travelling the Multiverse.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Riser Phenex, a 14 year old devil and third son of Marquis Phenex was lost and confused. Just earlier he had been talking to a cute magician and trying to seduce her and make her his first peerage member and the next he had found himself inside a devastated and burning ruin of a city with no soul in sight.

"Where am I?" Riser asked himself as he navigated the blasted ruins, "How did I get here?"

 _I must get to a higher vantage point._ Riser decided seeing that he was unable to get a clear picture of where he was and was not even able get a glimpse of the sky which was blocked by the broken ruins of the towers and buildings.

He walked and climbed through the broken towers and ruins and made his way to the highest vantage point making sure to avoid the burning parts of the ruins. As he climbed he found scores of dead bodies, mutilated to the extreme with some looking like they were half eaten and some had their entrails wrapped around them in a twisted parody of bondage and those were some of the more tame examples of what he had seen.

Riser lost his stomach when he saw the bodies, not believing that such as sight and act was even possible. But as much as he wished that such acts of barbarism and cruelty could not exist, Riser could not deny the reality before his eyes.

He forgot about his previous goals of getting to a higher vantage point and began to search for survivors.

He smashed down doors, dug through the ruins and bodies of the death to search for just one survivor but all he found was dead bodies and mutilated corpses, laid out on the ruins and arranged in twisted shapes and circles and moulds. He searched and searched and finally found a survivor but calling him a survivor was too much as Riser saw his condition.

The man was a soldier as evident by his clothing, a armour like jacket and a helmet and in his hands he held a strange rifle and in the other he held a small box which he clung onto with his dear life.

The man had lost his legs and was bleeding, his stomach ripped opened with a clawed hand sticking out from it, a jagged knife was stuck in his should and one of his eyes hung out from his head and there was a hole in his chest near his heart.

Around that man was bodies of strange creatures and men with insane features that Riser was sure was sure could not be natural at all and he could not even imagine what kind of supernatural being would be twisted enough to mutate their followers to such an insane degree.

Riser could not believe the man was still breathing as blood pooled around the man.

He approached the man trying to help him but Riser could not even make out words, shocked and confused as how to help the man.

In that state Riser did not doubt that even turning the man into a devil would save his life as even the Evil Pieces could not replace the lost organs and heal the extreme wounds that the man had. 'Phoenix tears should be able to help' Riser thought and he began to approach the man who had now levelled his gun at him.

"I…I am here to help." Riser said as he approached the man who still had his gun levelled on him but slowly put it down.

"About time." The man gurgled as blood flowed from his mouth. He lowered his gun and lifted the box and extended it to Riser. "Take it, take it and bring the Charter back to the Imperium." The man said as he handed Riser the box.

Riser could not understand the man's action but took the box and reached out for a vial of Phoenix Tears, when he felt the man grab his arm and looked at him with his lone eye full of gratitude and said "Thank You."

Riser was stunned when he heard the man's words and felt the man's hold slip from him as his hand fell lifelessly on the floor.

"Oi, oi, wake up, wake up." Riser said, shaking the man but the man did not respond and Riser knew that the man was dead and beyond saving.

His mind was now blank as Riser took the box the man gave him and began to go out into the ruins and began to search for some semblance of civilization. The imperium that the man mentioned had to somewhere near here and all Riser could do was search for it and fulfil the man's dying request.

He walked through the blasted ruins, black corrupted land and fields of desecrated corpses, carrying the box with him, which to his magical senses gave of power that he was unfamiliar with, which just validated its importance.

He walked through the blasted ruins and saw nothing but more ruins and corpses and after what seemed like seeing the hundredth twisted pile of corpses, Riser decided that enough was enough and began to burn the corpses he found. He wanted to bury the bodies and give them a proper burial but knew that it was impossible for him to bury so many bodies and thus he as last rites for the victims burned the bodies.

He started with a pile of bodies on top of which there was an eight pointed star. The strange thing he found was that when he tried to burn the bodies was the twisted metal in the shape of an eight pointed star refused to burn and seemed to protect the bodies from burning too. Riser thought it was strange and found it stranger when the box began to glow with a golden glow and almost hiss at the mere presence of the eight pointed star.

He then sense the power emitting from the twisted metal, one which was nauseating and simply too unnatural to his senses and thus Riser did his best to destroy the star increasing the intensity of his flames but the eight pointed star refused to burn. His normal flames could not melt the star thus he began to recall lessons that were taught him long ago of how the flames of a Phenex despite being produced from a Devil still had small purifying properties which was proof of their connection with the mystical Phoenix of old.

It as an old lesson and Riser was not sure how true it was but he gambled with and focused deeper and deeper into himself and thought only about purifying the metal before him. His flames grew hotter and hotter and slowly but surely he saw it gain a distinct golden-silver hue under which he saw the very energies surrounding the eight pointed star erase from existence and the metal melt into slag.

"I did it." Riser said smiling as he felt a bit exhausted after that act. He was able to purify the eight pointed star and burn the bodies to ashes, after which he began to burn the other piles of bodies with his new found purifying flames and soon the area was bathed in golden light, as the flames burned the bodies and left behind ashes in their wake.

Riser noticed that the area seemed to become more radiant as he burned more piles of bodies and destroy the stars, the landscape losing its twisted black hue and the ashes beginning to cover the area in a golden glow.

He did it with all the corpses he found and prayed in his heart that they found peace in the afterlife.

Riser burned the bodies and walked the blasted landscape leaving behind ashes and molten slags of metal in his wake.

He walked and burned and soon enough he gained the attention of someone who came looking for him.

Riser saw a man, eight foot tall, clad in ornate thick ornate amour and large cauldrons that were painted with the same twisted eight pointed star. The man wielded a large gun and an axe in his hands and was flanked but humans who wore rages and pieces of armour and carried knives and pistols.

The humans and the face of the large man were scarred with jagged lines cutting across the face, some forming the shape of an eight pointed star on their foreheads and cheeks. He saw them grinning which showed him their shark like teeth, some filled with pieces of meat which Riser doubted were animal meat and saw their eyes glowing with insanity and madness that unnerved him.

"So you are the one who is burning the shrines I built in dedication to the gods?" The large man said, his voice booming across the field, carrying an edge of madness, anger and anticipation.

Riser did not say anything and instead began to cover himself with invisible magical barriers and channel his flames in his hands.

"Your flames little sorcerer, are quite intriguing." The man said staring at the flames in his hand. "I wonder is it the gift of the corpse Emperor or something more." He said, laughing. "Regardless of its origins, I will learn of the secrets soon after I tear your limbs, rend your heart from your chest and drink every drop of blood from your body and sacrifice you soul to the Chaos Gods. You, who have desecrated the holy shrines of Chaos, will now feel the wrath of its champion." The man said as the axe in his hand began to rev up like a chainsaw and he leapt at him ignoring the streams of flames that Riser sent his way.

"I am Bialus Soul Renderer and **I AM YOUR DEATH**!" The man roared swinging his axe towards Riser, who stood as the Axe came and was blocked by the magical barrier he had erected which glowed blue upon being hit.

Riser saw the opportunity to attack the man but the man was faster as he levelled his gun on him and began shooting him. The bullets bouncing off Riser's barriers as they failed to penetrate but distracted Riser as he was surprised by the sheer speed of the man, who took the opportunity to swing his axe and hammer the barriers which slowly began to crack under the relentless attack of the man.

Riser was shaken out of his stupor as he felt his barriers strain under the barrage of attacks the man rained down on him. Riser quickly in order to get some breathing room sent a wave of fire towards the man who was unaffected by it but was distracted enough by the flames that allowed Riser to paddle back to a higher ground.

The followers of Bialus saw this and began to chase after Riser alongside their master, taking potshots at him from the distance, not caring whether or not they hit their master. The bullets flew and bounced of the barriers leaving Riser unharmed but they did their job in distracting him and Bialus was soon upon him, swinging his axe and leaving a large crack on his magical barrier which took the brunt of the attack.

"You are no ordinary prey, young sorcerer. The Chaos Gods you be more than pleased with me when I sacrifice such a unique soul to them." the man said as riser felt the axe eat away at his barriers.

Riser sent out a powerful stream of flames, with the same purifying properties as he had used before and unlike before Bialus seemed frightened at his flames as they boiled away his armour burnt his skin.

Bialus roared in anger and pain but did not fall as his armour fused inside him and his skin began to mutate into something twisted.

Riser took the opportunity to create some distance between him and the howling man but found himself surrounded by the Bialus' men who descended upon him like carrion birds with shouts and screams of madness and attacked him with guns and swords.

Riser was quick to kill them burning them to ashes but they just came at him unheeding of the death of their brethren and did their best to get to him, even as they all burned to cinders and ashes.

Riser was so focused on the mad men that he did not sense Bialus descend on him with his axe, shattering his magical barrier with his blow and bite down into his shoulders.

"AHHHHHHHH." Riser screamed as he felt the axe rip apart his flesh and he felt Bialus kick his back shattering his spine and sending him crashing into the cultists.

The pain was too much, it was just too much but Riser felt his body regenerate from the pain as his phoenix constitution kicked in and he burned the cultist around him to ashes.

Bialus glared at him as he saw the flames heal his wound and Riser could not help but smile upon seeing the look of anger on the man's face.

No words were exchanged as Bialus rushed towards Riser intent on killing him and Riser after feeling his spine set back into place greeted Bialus with lances of fire. Bialus in a surprising display of dexterity weaved through the lances of fire, dodging them by a hair's breadth even as his armour melted from the proximity of the flames and swung his axe towards Riser's head intent on killing him with a single blow.

Riser simply smiled as he saw the axe descend and Bialus saw that smile and was confused, confusion which turn into shock and understanding as he saw a familiar barrier ripple into life taking the blow, shock turned to anger as he felt flames come to life and that anger turned into acceptance as he felt the lances of fire wash over his face turned it to cinders.

Riser took a breath of relief as he saw Bialus fall, his head turned into ashes by his flames. He looked around and saw Bialus' men look at him with fear and uncertainty and while Riser was no cold blooded Killer, he knew that these men were too far gone and were mad beyond reason and had been participants in desecrating the bodies he had found.

They would find no mercy from him and Riser left the ruins filled with ashes and he silenced the screams of madness and pleas for mercy with his flames.

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Riser did not know how long it had been but he was tired dead tired and he wanted to rest. After the fight Riser had found the box in the hands of the man men who tried to destroy it but failed to do so and Riser was quick to kill them and recover the box.

In between Riser tried to teleport home but found something interfering with the spell, making it unstable and Riser erring on the side of caution decided not to go home for now.

It was not like his family would be too worried as he was on a vacation on the human world in search for his peerage, and they would knew his habits well enough that they were not too worried not him calling home for such a long period of time.

For now though Riser simply wanted to return the box to the Imperium and get out of this hellish place.

He wish was granted as he saw strange crafts fly overhead, unloading scores of soldiers and men, who seemed to be attacking the bases of the mad men.

He saw one of those crafts land and out of it came men clad in red cloaks and red robes with strange mechanical limbs sticking out of their body.

"Hello there." One of man clad in red-robes holding a strange mechanical staff with a gear at its end greeted him.

"Hello. Are you from the imperium?" Riser asked.

"That we are. I'm surprised that you have did not recognise us by our appearance." The man replied, and Riser could feel the man's curiosity rise.

"I am not from around here and all I found in this place was corpses and mad men that were trying to kill me." Riser said honestly, seeing no reason to lie.

"Not the best first impression of the Imperium, I take it." the man said, sounding a bit amused.

"That is an understatement." Riser huffed at the man's strange attempt at humour. "But anyways I have this it to you. It was given to me by a dying man who guarded it till his very last breath." Riser said as he handed the box to the red-robed man, who took it and opened it with the mechanical appendages on his back.

Whatever was inside the box must have been of great import as the man shook in reverence and said, "By the Omnissiah."

"I take it that it is important." Riser commented seeing the man shake.

"Yes, yes it is." The man replied as he closed the box and held it like it was an object most holy. "You have done a great service to the imperium, stranger in guarding this box. What is your name?"

"Riser, Riser Phenex." Riser replied.

"A good name, a good name." The man commented "Now let us depart from this place shall we."

Riser saw what the man was offering and took it. He had enough of this blasted landscape and did not want anything to do with it anymore. During the travel he talked with the red-robed man whose name he found was Galius and told him of what had happened and how he took down Bailus.

Riser noted that the man turned a bit cautious when he showed him his flames and was eyeing him with a cautious gaze but otherwise was quite friendly with him for the most part.

They soon reached a city and Riser was offered a place to stay and he took it. It was small and not too decorated but it was better than the ruins he had seen and Riser after cleaning himself and having a small meal, he slept and let dreams of home and his family take him.

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Galius considered himself quite blessed and lucky, that he had found the strange boy Riser.

The box, the boy had been carrying held not only the sector charter but also three pieces of the Armour of the Emperor and an ancient and unknown pattern of an Ancient Gamma Pistol along with star charts which if he had read them correctly showed him locations of ancient lost factories and facilities which were no doubt full of ancient archeotechnoloy.

The pistol was a great find, one that would elevate his position in the mechanicus. The shards and the Charter though, were great political tools and Galius would be sure to reward the boy for that. The star charts though were of great importance and were such a find that it was enough for the boy to be seen as a Saint in the eyes of the Mechanicus. The fact that he had killed Bialus, a well-known Chaos Marine that plagued the sector with his raids and acts of butchery would only cement the boy's status as someone important.

This was why he was arguing with the Inquisitor on questioning the boy and torturing him for information and to ascertain his loyalty, the boy was going to be important down the line and dragging him for torture in the guise of interrogation was a sure way to alienate the boy and make a powerful enemy out of him.

"…So you see inquisitor we cannot simply torture the boy. Not only has he been in constant contact with the relics which would have protected him from the taint of Chaos but he has also slain Bialus in single combat, something that no ordinary man is capable of doing so. The Ecclesiarchy would have our heads if they learn that you torture the boy, whose actions in their eyes would be enough to give him the status of a Saint, a minor one granted but the boy would become a Saint whom we cannot just provoke at will." Galius said, trying to keep the inquisitor from doing something foolish.

"That may be so but you have admitted that the boy is not fully human and is not from the Imperium. As such I cannot in good conscience let him go without interrogating him." The inquisitor replied and Galius had to admit that she had a point.

"Very well, inquisitor as long as you don't torture the boy, you can interrogate him." Galius conceded, knowing full well how the game was played and he did not want an irritated inquisitor after him due to damaging her power base and reputation by refusing her.

"Oh, I won't need to torture him at all." The inquisitor smiled as her eyes glowed with bright red.

' _Psyker'_ Galius thought as he saw the tell-tale sign of the warp powers the inquisitor displayed. "Then be careful not to shatter the boy's mind. Despite being a powerful psyker himself I fear that his mental defences are not strong enough."

"I won't" the inquisitor said, her eyes losing her glow and she picked up her sword and went to see the boy. "Do take care of the Relics, Magos. The Sororitas would be most crossed if you lose them."

"I won't" Galius replied as he took the relics and headed to the base, thanking his lucky stars that he was able to calm the inquisitor and nothing bad happened.

He would deal with the Sororitas and the elements of the Ecclesiarchy later once the battle was over and he was going to enjoy putting those fanatics into their places. They had been quite zealous and had such a large presence and influence in this sector and this was a grand opportunity weaken their hold and strengthen the elements of the Mechanicus in the Sector.

Already arguments and rebuttals were forming in his mind, one which he would use to get what he wanted and he would make sure to elevate the boy and use him to further the ambition of the Mechanicus in the region.

' _Should I volley for the boy to become a Rogue Trader_? _That would at least keep the boy safe and neutral among the Imperial factions who I have no doubt would try to claim the boy for themselves._ ' Galius thought, thinking about how the other factions would chase after the boy and try to bend his mind and make him a slave to their whims and plots. The boy did not deserve such a fate and deserved so much more than being turned into a willing pawn of the imperial factions.

Galius had to be careful here and create strong ties with the boy for the benefit of the Mechanicus. It could also allow the Mechanicus to have a powerful Rogue Trader Dynasty as an ally too if they played their cards right. _'It is an appealing idea, one that could allow the Mechanicus to have gain more influence inside the Imperium. The Omnissiah knows that we need to be more in touch with the other parts of the Imperium and having the Rogue Trader on our side would allow us to better influence the Sector policies. Not to mention that this would also keep the'_

While Galius did not want the Mechanicus to dabble to much in the political field of the Imperium, some sectors were just too hostile to the Mechanicus and not too friendly, especially the industrialised worlds who seem to think that they knew everything and were better off without the Mechanicus oversight so that they could innovate and carve out their own path.

Galius admire their dedication in the pursuit of the truth of the universe they were in but those worlds were naïve in their thinking and did not take the proper precautions to appease not only the machine spirits but also prevent them from being possessed by the Daemons of the Warp and pursue avenues of technologies that were better left untouched.

He knew that he could not change the minds of the people but the people of this sector were almost adamant in purging the Mechanicus and chasing it out of the sector not knowing the damage they were causing. Already they had prevented the establishment of any proper Forge World in this sector, depriving the sector of an industrial powerhouse that would help it compete with other sectors, but were also keen on creating laws that almost guarantee that the Mechanicus would not have much of a presence in a long time. The Inquisition and the Ministorum were not too helpful in helping the Mechanicus establish a foothold in this sector, establishing their own hold in this sector in the form of numerous Shrine Worlds and Hive worlds.

One day, the Mechanicus would become a part of this sector but Galius feared that when that day come countless worlds would be lost. It would be such a waste to lose so many brilliant minds who could better serve the Omnissiah and the Imperium.

A Rogue Trader may just turn things around for the Mechanicus in this sector.

' _Hmmn, what an interesting idea._ ' Galius thought as he plotted how to win the boy over and shape the future of an entire sector while he send a message to the Archmagos and told him about his plans. "Yes what an interesting idea."

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A few hours later Riser followed Galius to the chamber where he was going to meet the other members of the imperium and they wanted to hear what happened from his own mouth.

The chamber was small and in between there was a round table with chairs that looked more like thrones than anything and seated on those chairs were some of the scariest persons Riser had ever seen.

There was one man who Riser could easily identify as a Priest of high ranking as the man wore garments similar to that of catholic priest and simply oozed an aura of holiness that was sure to scare away most devils, except that the symbols and crosses on the priest were of the wrong type and had little to almost no connection to Christianity as Riser while could feel the holiness radiating from him, it was welcoming him like an old friend instead of burning him for being a devil.

Then there was the woman who wore a large purple cape and a brim top hat with a high collared coat. She had blond hair with faint red streaks and blue eyes that held the gaze of a predator eyeing him with a critical gaze and sizing him up, evaluating his value and no doubt making plans to turn him into a pawn for her plans. The woman really reminded him of the day Riser had met ZEkram Bael who looked at him with the same gaze the woman had, and that was the scariest thing he had ever experienced.

Shifting his eyes away from the woman, Riser sight fell on the mechanical figure seated between the priest and the woman. The figure was like that of a large serpent with the lower half being a myriad of interconnected sections of metal plate fitted together in a twisted parody of a snake's tail while the figure's torso was acting more like a plug connection by which multiple metallic limbs, wires and other strange gadgetry were hanging out of it. The head if it could be called as such, was shaped in the form of a chameleon with the two eyes sweeping across the room restlessly while a third eye resting in the middle of the forehead stared at him.

Riser saw no mouth attached to the head and instead saw a series of wires attached to the throat of the man and a smooth metallic curved plate in the shape of a jaw attached to the base of the skull making the mechanical figure look even more inhuman.

All in all, Riser knew that the three people before him were dangerous and influential to the extreme and he was not skilled, experienced or even brave enough to handle whatever plans they might have for him.

"Riser Phenex, we have been expecting you." The priest said in a warm tone which eased his nerves a bit but Riser knew that he could not afford to let his guard down.

"Yes, we have heard much about you and your deeds from Galius." The woman said, her voice soft and smooth, sensual in a way Riser was not expecting and had such a soft melodic tone that Riser could not help but be drawn to her. "Though we would like to hear of it from you, after all there is nothing more accurate than first-hand accounts after all."

She was dangerous Riser decided then and there. ' _Dangerous like a Siren luring her prey_ ' yep he was going to avoid her like she was a plague and more, which was why Riser was quick to recount the events and how they came to pass, down to how he had slain the mad beast of a man known as Bialus.

"Interesting can you perhaps show us your flames by which you admitted to have purified and destroy the eight pointed stars." The woman requested and Riser complied not wanting to earn the ire of the woman before him.

He called upon his flames and turn them to the same golden hue that helped him destroy those corrupted marks and he could see the woman's eyes dance with unbridled interest as she stared at his flames.

"What do you think Father Jovan?" the woman asked the Priest whom Riser noticed was also staring at his flames with the same intensity as the woman.

"I…I-I feel the purity of the flames." The priest said quietly, his voice shaking as he uttered the words. "I feel it cleanse the very air around us." The priest continued his voice rising with every word he spoke. "I feel it burn the corruption of the Warp! **I feel the power of the Emperor himself flowing though the flames**!" he shouted hysterically. "He is a chosen of the Emperor, a Saint in both deed and power." He declared then glared at the Inquisitor "And you would not harm him Inquisitor or else you and your ilk would be committing Heresy of the highest order."

Riser was utterly baffled at what the priest was sprouting as he thought of the irony of his words, _'A_ _Saint? He is calling a Devil like me a Saint?!'_

The woman simply sent a small glare at the priest, anger evident in her eyes but did not let it show in her voice as she spoke. "If you say that he is a Saint than I will acknowledge his Sainthood, Father Jovan. But I will remind you that the boy is an outsider and as such is still very much ignorant of our ways of life." The woman said and Riser had to admit that stating that he was an outsider to their realm was a good tactic to curtail his influence in their organisations. He did not doubt for a moment that the title of a Saint would allow him to have great power and influence over their realm.

"Then he would learn and we would teach him of our ways and the laws of the Imperium and make him one of us." The priest replied with conviction daring the woman to refute his words.

"I would still advise caution in this matter." The woman said as her face betrayed no emotion but to Riser who was a devil, a being that thrived on the desires of others, she was a veritable volcano of anger waiting to burst out at any moment.

"Your lack of faith in this matter is strange inquisitor. I have said that the boy is chosen by the Emperor and that should have been enough." The Priest said sceptically, "I wonder if I should be worried about your faith in the Emperor."

Riser gulped as he heard what the priest said and knew what his words meant. He was outright threatening the woman and in doing so had firmly put him on his list of the scariest people he had ever met.

"My faith in the Emperor is unquestionable, Father Jovan." The woman said glaring at the priest. "It is your judgement that I find wanting. After all even the most pious of faith can be fooled by the trickery of Chaos. Should he turn out to be an agent of the Ruinous power, would you Father Jovan bear the responsibility for it?"

And Riser was now really scared of the woman before him, seeing how she cornered the Priest so easily and totally ignored his threat. Riser was going to make sure that he never met her again after this meeting, potential peerage member, be damned. The woman was just too scary for him.

"Yes" the Priest replied resolutely not fearing the woman's words at all and Riser had to wonder just what did the man feel from his flames that he was willing to put so much faith in him, "but I know that I would not have to bear responsibility for it as the young Saint would not fall to Chaos so easily."

"Then now we should discuss who is going to take responsibility for him." The woman said as she now stared at him.

"Is there any doubt that the Ecclesiarchy is going to take care of him. He is a Saint after all."

"And we have not yet verified his origins yet father and as such he is still subjected to an Inquisitorial review."

"And what is an inquisitorial review but wanton torture in disguise." The priest spat. "No, the boy is going to be taken in by the Ministorum and we would interrogate him using our own means, ones that do not rely on senseless and unnecessary torture of the innocent."

Riser saw them bicker throwing all sorts of allegations and facts towards each other that he was sure they were going to duke it out here. All the while the mechanical figure who had been keeping silent slowly backed away from the two and glided towards him and said.

"I must congratulate you on earning the title of a Saint, Young Phenex." The mechanical figure said, "It would be really be interesting to see how the others would react to having a Saint as a Rogue Trader." The man said as he handed him a parchment. "This is your warrant of Trade young Saint keep it safe and it would keep you safe from the more zealous and fanatical members of the Imperium. Also if you need to commission any kind of ship tell Galius over there and he would pass on the information to us and we would prepare any kind of ship to your liking, even if that ship is a battleship. So don't be shy little Saint and feel free to state your wishes." After saying that, the mechanical figure left leaving Riser with the priest and the woman who were gaping at the retreating figure of the mechanical man.

"Looks like the Mechanicus has staked their claim if they are offering a battleship to a newly minted Rogue Trader, nothing much we can do now huh, Inquisitor." The Priest said sparing the woman a sidelong gaze.

"Yes. I guess so." The woman gritted, "and with that we can end this meeting here." and with that she left.

"Anyways, Saint Riser if you require anything of us than you can approach any members of the Ecclesiarchy and they would do their best to help you to their best capabilities in both trade and even combat if it comes down to it. So please do not be afraid of asking for help." The priest said as he followed the woman out of the hall, leaving Riser with Galius as he stared at the parchment with one question in his mind.

"What just happened?"

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"You know Archmagos Triach, you could have warned us that the High Lords had issued a warrant of Trade for the boy." Inquisitor Janine said as she followed the Archmagos.

"I could have but then you two were concocting such complicated plots that I felt I should not bother with such small details." The Archmagos replied as he slithered across the corridor.

"The boy is going to be a Rogue Trader Triach and our act was to ensure that the boy would join or at least request the aid of the Ministorum after which we could have surrounded him with agents of the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisitions and even some Callidus Assassins to ensure that the boy was kept loyal to the Imperium and in case he fell to The Ruinous Powers killed with extreme Prejudice." Father Jovan said as he followed the two out of the corridor.

"Did you not say that the boy's power had no connection to the warp and was in fact a power similar to that of the Emperor?" Triach asked curious about Jovan's motives for going along with this charade.

"Aye and I still stand by that statement." Jovan replied. "But the purity of his flames was less than that of the Emperor and could easily be matched by even some low-level purity seals and while he may have been uncorrupted by the Ruinous powers, his powers which do not use the warp at all are intriguing enough that having members of the Inquisition and the Ministorum study them which might have yielded some good results."

"Sadly due to him being a Rogue Trader we can't simply surround him with agents of the Ministorum and the Inquisition and would also have to watch out for possible turncoats and heretics in his retinue and kill him at the first sign of corruption. Not to mention the fact that due to him gallivanting across the Imperium with his Trade Warrant we would not be able to use specialised tools to examine his powers which would no doubt lead to an ineffective research into his powers." Janice added and Triach could feel the irritation oozing off her voice

"Well don't worry I am sure Galius would be able to win the boy's trust and recommend men and women to recruit and if those men and women turn out to be agents of the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition…well, we can hardly blame a Magos for not making the connection can't we." Triach said nonechalantly, to which the Inquisitor and the Priest could not help but smile.

"So does that mean we are free to change the recruitment list?" Janine asked wanting to confirm the fact before she did anything.

"Of course, in fact it would be much easier for the Rogue Trader to recruit men and women recommended by people of status and experience and surround him with Advisors who are well educated and well informed about the realities of the Imperium don't you think?" Triach asked in an innocent manner. "We would just be helping him out. After all not only is he a young boy but also quite ignorant about the Imperium as a whole."

"Yes that he is." Father Jovan admitted.

"Really sometimes the two of you miss out the obvious and go about things in the most complicated way." Triach sighed "The boy is young and ignorant and as such complicated plots would do more harm than good and having a straightforward approach would yield faster results with deceptions and plots kept are counter measures and not primary means of approach. Seriously you father and daughter duo should know when to use straightforward measures and not keep on sticking to plots and deception." Triach said admonishing the two.

""Yes Granfather Triach."" Jovan and Janine said in tandem.

"Honestly, how a descendant of mine became part of the ministorum and the Inquisition still baffles me to this day." Triach sighed once more lamenting the state of his family. "Now tell me about your plans and I would see to it that the equipment needed for examining the Young Saints powers are fitted into his ship alongside a contigent of Tech Priests experienced in their use."

With that the three relatives plotted and plan, eager to turn the new Saint into a paragon for their own purposes and uncover the secret of his flames.

##################

Riser slept as others plotted to use him as a pawn in their game and he slept as people of high places debated about his future.

He slept as the gaze of the four Ruinous powers fell upon him but their gaze was turned as the man on the Golden Throne looked at him with hope and protected him from Chaos. He slept as a dragon sleeping on mars monitored him through the machines in his room and wondered why he felt a sort of kinship with the boy. He slept as the Eldar Farseers panicked due to getting conflicting imagery of the future one filled with both ruin and prosperity for their kind but could not help but scowl in disgust as they saw a mon-kiegh wield the mantle of the Phoenix King but bow down to the Emperor of Mankind, while Cegorach laughed at their predicament.

Riser slept unaware that the Gods and Players of the Immaterium plotted and move intent on uncovering the new gambit that the God-Emperor of Mankind had played while the Emperor sitting on his Golden Throne looked down on the sleeping boy and said.

"I thank you old friend for sending me help through the boy. Now all I can hope is that the gifts you have bestowed upon the boy would be enough to remake the dying Imperium and save it from this slow death."

He looked at the boy hope in his heart, one that he had long discarded and never thought he would ever dare to feel again. He thus reached out to the mind of the sleeping Devil and through it talked to him in his dreams.

Riser slept and dreamt, he dreamt of a world untouched by man, he dreamt of a world unmarred by war, he dreamt of oceans full of life of lands filled with beasts he had never seen and plants he had never even heard of, he dreamt of Earth long past and he dreamt of a man sitting on a mountain top looking at the world below it.

"Hello Riser Phenex." The man said and Riser greeted back.

"Hello sir."

"You must be wondering why you are here talking to me or even why you are here?" the man said not taking his eyes from the scenery below him.

"No, I am just confused." Riser replied feeling more than lost at why he was having such a strange dream.

The man sighed and as if reading his thoughts he replied, "Don't wonder why you are having this dream, Riser. Just humour this old man and his antics for now."

Riser's gut feeling told him that this was no ordinary dream and that somehow the man had invaded his dreams and was showing him these sights. The question though was why and what was the purpose of this dream.

"You know Riser you are not what I was expecting." The man said, "I was expecting someone of great virtue, one that was brave and could inspire and lead others. I was even expecting someone shy and timid or even an arrogant but well intentioned man but not you. I was really not expecting a lustful, boastful and arrogant boy. That I was really not expecting."

"You were expecting a human." Riser stated the first thing that came to his mind when he heard the man's words.

"Yes, I really was expecting a human not a Devil."

"Does that mean that you know who brought me here?" Riser questioned wondering if the man knew the witch that sent him here and if he could go tell him what was interfering with the teleportation spell.

"Yes, the woman that sent you is an old friend of mine whom I ask to send someone that could help Me." the man said, "I thus expected her to send a hero not a devil. She really must have taken my words literally when I said that I was desperate enough to even make a deal with a devil."

Riser could not help but be amused at that and said "Are you? Are you really willing to make a deal with a devil?"

"Were it the traditional Devil kind than no, I am not." the man replied then grinned as he said "But you are not a Traditional Devil are you, young Phenex?"

"No." Riser said matching the man's grin with his own. Contacts may be created for Reincarnated Devils to gain power but that did not mean that High Class Devils could not make them. "But I have to tell you the price you pay would be quite high."

"As long as it does not involve selling my soul or the soul of other humans, I am willing to pay any price you ask, be it in material wealth or power and knowledge." The man said resolutely and Riser knew he would uphold his words.

"Then state your task and I, Riser Phenex pledge to complete it to the best of my abilities." Riser stated knowing full well that there were but a few tasks that a devil could not accomplish.

The man scoffed but smiled, "Like I said, arrogant. But I guess it would have to do." The man stood up and the scenery changed and Riser found himself and the man floating in a sea of darkness, he saw stars flew by and worlds inhabited by men and planet sized constructs float in the edges of a system.

"Then this is your task Riser Phenex, the Imperium of Mankind, the Empire that I have forged." The man said as the stars flew by and Riser saw legions of men march to war and fought horrors that should not even exit. "It is dying a slow death, being kept alive only by the deeds of heroes and the blood of martyrs. Your task is to save it and bring it to a new dawn."

Riser saw the stars, the wonders of architecture build by human hands and the wars they fought on all sides. It was big, bigger than he could imagine and the man was asking him to save this vast dying empire that consisted of countless humans.

"Still up for it boy?" the man asked in a mocking tone and Riser could not help but sneer at the man and he said.

"A Devil is immortal and his life measured in eons, even if it takes me thousands of years I would fulfil my task and complete it. I just hope that you're still capable of paying me when I fulfil my task." Riser boasted not willing to back down from this challenge no matter how big and impossible it may seem.

"Oh, I am more than willing and capable. To prove it I have something to give you, think of it as an advance." The man said as he brought to life 35 chess pieces. "I must say that whoever made the Evil pieces is a genius despite his bad naming sense that man truly is a genius."

"The ability to resurrect and change one's species while keeping all the qualities of their previous species intact is remarkable. I truly have to give my praise to that man."

Riser did not heed the words of the man as he was stunned upon seeing the chess pieces. He as familiar with the Evil Pieces and knew how their presence felt like, having his own set and thus he knew how different the Pieces before him were.

The pieces radiated with a power Riser had never felt before and knew that these were not like the Evil Pieces that Lord Beelzebub had created. They felt more…pure, in a sense, free of the strange darkness that existed in the Evil Pieces. How, how in the world did the man recreate the Evil Pieces and what changes did he make to make these pieces so powerful?

The man saw Riser's dumbfounded face and smirked. "Judging by the expression on your face, I see that my efforts have not been in vain and that these pieces are more than enough for an advance payment." He said and Riser nodded dumbly, still unable to wrap around the fact that the man had recreated the evil pieces.

"Then let me tell you about these pieces." The man said and the pieces began to float around him and he began to explain the qualities of all the pieces.

"At their core the pieces would boost the physical abilities of the host by 200 times, make them biologically immortal and give them an impressive regeneration that is equal to yours and gives them a magical reserves again equal to yours while also giving them the ability to use your brand of magic while keeping them Human and make them Human while keeping all the pros of their species or give them a Humanoid form in case their genome is incompatible with humans, which is rare as Humans are pretty mouldable and thus almost all species can create a Hybrid form from their combined genomes. The pieces would also allow their hosts to grow in power and skill at a rapid rate and allow them to adapt to the circumstances quite easily too. They also allow the person to learn any skill, technique and magic of human origin. If a human can use it, then they can learn it."

"What?"

"Let's now focus on the pieces themselves. First, the eight Rooks.

The Rooks are meant for denying area to you enemy on the board and having great defence and strength is a good strategy but focusing on only physical strength and defences to endure an attack is pointless and thus I have given the Rook piece overwhelming magical defences in the form of seven omni-directional magical barriers with each barriers capable of matching a titan's void shields and a special series of spells that would empower the weapons and armours they wield to new heights.

I would suggest giving you rooks some really extensive training to find out the limits of the spells.

Next are the Eight Bishops, the ones whose ability to control territories and spaces and support other pieces is unparalleled. For that I have given them immense magical reserves and spells to that would heal, boost attributes of other pieces, curse their enemies and turn them from warriors to frail harmless beings, control the battlefield and change it to their liking and create magical and physical fortifications and traps that would make even the strongest of beings hesitate to attack. Their magical powers would be unmatched as well as their magical defences and knowledge. In fact they would be able to learn and cast any and all magical spells and rituals in record time with little to no difficulty."

"What?"

"Moving on we have the Eight Knights, known for their mobility and unpredictable moves, quickly moving on the board and even entering enemy lines. For this I have given them the ability to Teleport and possess immense speed as well as have great strength and defences to take down their enemies.

Knights, in history are renowned for their mastery of their weapons and ability to inspire others and for this I have given them an special ability that allows them to gain supreme mastery of any weapon they wield, enhance the power of the weapons and armours they use in combat by 20 times and exude an aura that would inspire and heal allies while terrify and hurt their enemies. They are masters of combat and would easily learn and master any martial technique, battle strategies and tactics and employ them with devastating effects."

"What?"

"Then we have the Eight Pawns, they possess little bit of everything of the other pieces but at a reduced scale and are mostly generalised unlike their specialist counterparts but possess speed equal to that of a Knight piece and have the ability to hide their presence from their enemies. They are the scouts, assassins and soldiers that would lay the foundations for the other pieces on the battlefield and aid their allies by promoting into other pieces and helping them fix any holes in their strategies. They also have the ability to scavenge and repair any technologies they find and quickly learn to reverse engineer and understand any new technologies they encounter."

"What?"

"Now we move on to the two Empresses, Fairy Chess Pieces, which has all the abilities of the other pieces as well as the ability to give special commands and boons that would allow the other pieces to do things that are normally not possible, like teleporting a rook from one system to another or healing even near fatal wounds providing a sort of pseudo-resurrection, even though it would exhaust the Empress it is possible. The Empress also gains the ability to empower normal combatants on the field, observe the battlefield on a strategic scale and even give boost to construction, building and training of soldiers, buildings and combat vehicles and even heal and repair them instantly with ease.

The Empress has also other abilities but I would let you find them out for yourself."

"What?"

"Lastly we have the King Piece, which you would be using. Is nothing special apart from the base boost it provides but it is powerful as it would allow you to learn everything your pieces know, gain their skills and knowledge, even grant the unique power they wield no matter how alien they may be the King Piece would break them down and allow you to use it, you can also grant your pieces those same powers and abilities. It like the Empress also has other abilities but I would let you find them out yourself.

And thus, those are the capabilities of the Saint Pieces." The man said completing his explanation, putting the pieces in a box and giving it to Riser.

"What?" Riser said, repeating the same word as he had been doing for the past few minutes upon hearing the explanation. "No seriously WHAT?! There is simply no way, NO WAY! THAT! Everything you said about these pieces is true and there is no way that you could have created them by simple analysing the Evil Pieces."

"I assure you that everything I said was true, though be glad to prove me wrong by showing me that the pieces work much better than I describe." The man said with a kind understanding smile looking like a great scholar but Riser could feel the sheer smugness oozing off of him.

"You mean how the pieces don't live up to the hype, because frankly everything that you said is impossible." Riser spat out, still trying to wrap his head around the powerful abilities of the Saint Pieces.

"I assure you that it is quite possible." The man replied with a serene smile, not bothered by the rising anger of Riser.

"There are just some things in life that is not possible." Rise shouted back, unable to accept that someone able to easily copy one of the most priced artefacts that the greatest genius his species made in order to aid the survival of their species with a glance.

"You who are a devil with the power of Phoenix and one that does not hunger for the souls of humans or plot their demise, _exists_ , thus anything is possible. One just has to find the correct path." The man simply said.

Riser's mind blanked as if someone dumped a bucket of cold water on him. He found himself unable to retort the man's words and thus simply asked him, "How did you do it?"

The man smiled like a child and eagerly answered Riser's query, "Magic of course, Devil magic to be more precise. It being a system of magic that ran on imagination allowed me to do things that was out of my usual capabilities and thus using your magic I was able to circumvent the whole rules of magic and simply magic away the snags and obstacles in my way."

Riser knew well that Devil magic was powerful and since it ran on imagination the sky was the limit for it but he never thought that someone other than a Devil would use it like this. "How, just how?" he asked again still unable to accept this strange reality that he found himself in.

"Like I said, Devil magic runs on the Imagination of its user allowing it to achieve almost anything. I simply followed the logical course and DARED to Imagine." The man replied and Riser realised that the man before him was really no ordinary man.

He had known that no ordinary man would be able to create a galaxy spanning empire but he would not have been surprised by it too as the man could have had the help of many to achieve it. Thus upon hearing the man's reply Riser realised just how out of the ordinary the man was and felt that the man was like the legendary heroes of old and that his enemies would have been truly terrifying to bring such a man to hopeless despair.

Taking the box that contained the Saint Pieces, Riser contemplated his decision and realised that he might be truly out of his depths.

"Having second thoughts?" the man asked and Riser remembered that the man could hear his thoughts. "Don't, for I know that the task is impossible for you to complete by yourself which is why I have given you those pieces. Create a peerage Riser and allow them to help you in your quest, make allies and new friends and inspire the masses to follow your example.

You are now not just a Devil, scion of House Phenex but a Saint of the Imperium of Man. Lead them in this Grim Times and let the look forward to a new dawn."

"Easy for you to say." Riser said letting loose a hopeless laugh "How? How would I help the imperium?" Raiser asked feeling so out of his depths and Riser knew that when he accepted the contract he would have to see to it to its end and ensure that this Imperium come out on top.

"By trading of course," The Emperor said "You will become a Rogue Trader, I would see to that"

"How would that help?" Riser asked, wanting to know what that new title along with that of a Saint would help him.

The mans smiled and said, "A Rogue Trader's job is to trade and explore and go to places where no one can go and act as a representative of the Imperium. They trade in all manners of goods and technologies and exploring unexplored space that hold artefacts of great power and use.

When I asked my old friend for help she said that the person she would send would have a special ability that she would bestow upon them, the ability to travel through the multiverse at will, which would allow you to access realms that no Rogue Trader could think of going and find artefacts and technology that they could never find much more easily. Bringing those back and trading them with the Imperium and would allow the Empire to grow and gain technologies that would help it recover and strengthen itself, maybe even turn the tides of the many wars the Imperium is engaged in.

The worlds and realms that you would visit hold the key to the survival of the Imperium and by exploring them and gathering those artefacts and technologies you would help the Imperium survive."

"Okay, that is just too much don't you think?" Riser said feeling more than a bit overwhelmed by the sudden revelation.

"No it is not. We humans have a penchant for overkill and this is fairly standard for the most part and in fact allowing you to conquer other universes and create your own little multiversal empire, is a fair price to pay for your aid in helping the imperium recover I suppose." The man replied and Riser had to admit that sounded like a more than fair price for the monumental task he had foolishly taken.

"I guess that's fair." Riser said, accepting the whole deal.

"Good. I guess now it's time for you to wake up now little Phenex." The man said making riser confused as the world shifted and Riser fell into the deep void.

#################

"AHHHHHH." Riser screamed as he fell from the bed into the cold hard floor. "Ouch"

He sprang up and looked around and found himself in the same room that Galius had given him. He steadied himself up and found no sign of the strange man nor felt his presence around him.

"Now that was a strange dream." Riser said as he clutched his head, trying to come to terms with the things he had seen in that dream. He was about to sit down on a nearby chair when his eyes fell on something.

A wooden mahogany box that was stylised with a two headed golden eagle and with his family crest etched on top of the eagle.

Trembling Riser approached the box and opened it. He gasped as he saw the red and black chess pieces, his Evil Pieces lined alongside the 30 Saint Pieces, with a simple note on top of them. Riser knew his life had been irrevocably changed as he read the words.

" **It was not a dream and Good Luck  
on your Quest Little Phenex.  
Sign: The Emperor of Mankind"**

 **###############################################################################**

 **AN: So this is a rewrite of my other fic the Phoenix Rogue trader.**

 **Riser still is the main character and people were complaining why I did not use Issei as the main and instead used the Fried Chicken. Well apart from having a legitimate reason of a 14 year old killing a space marine which no normal as hell 14 year old boy could do even with the Boosted Gear and die from the subsequent injuries he suffered which Riser could simply shrug of using his bullshit regen. I wanted to use the Evil Piece Shenanigans which would have not been possible if I used Issei.**

 **Also I did not have to pull out a really asspull explanation for why the MC was able to kill The Space Marine.**

 **Phenex flames and Regeneration is OP and it is going to stay that way, heck even in canon storyline it too Issei accessing a high tier skill of a Longinus-Class Sacred Gear with Holy Water to boot to beat Raiser and that too after sacrificing his arm. And a single Chaos Marine is nowhere near as powerful as Issei was at that time. Remember Issei was able to Blow up a mountain with a standard Dragon Shot at that time that is like a 40K Titan level power right there and still had to gain more power to beat Raiser.**

 **Phenex are totally bullshittingly OP and that is staying that way because unlike the low level mooks that Raiser faced the Greater Daemons and Veteran Space Marines with the blessings of their gods can and will take down Raiser if he is not careful and rape his soul hard.**

 **Now that is out of the way and I hope I don't get any more flake for it, as per the story concept I am going to send Raiser to other universes as a Rogue Trader to trade, and this is the short list of worlds he is going to go to.**

 **Star Wars (Epic Space Fantasy)  
NIeR: Automata  
Gate: The JSDF fought there. (Gothic Lolita and other fetishes)  
Familiar of Zero, (Familiars and pink haired monsters)  
Any Wuxia, Xianxia story, (Chinese epic fantasies and bullshit martial artists)  
Mass Effect (Epic Space Opera)  
Game of Thrones (Fantasy Politics at its finest)  
Star Gate (Empire Builder)  
BattleTech, (Discount Mechas)  
Gundam Seed (Mecha Jesus)  
Gundam in General (Only Humans are allowed to build killer Mechas not those damn Tau)  
Code Geass (C.C and pizza, that is all)  
Supreme Commander, (Bullshit Commander and their bullshit technology)  
Warcraft (All hail the Lich King)  
Avatar (Who wants to be a Fire Bender)  
Naruto, (Ninjas and Aliens. You know it is true)  
To love Ru (Again for the Aliens, I swear! Why don't you believe me?!)  
Fallout (Rad as hell)**

 **Yeah that is a lot and the fantasy worlds would act as downtime for Raiser and it is not like the Imperium of Mankind is unfamiliar with feudal worlds.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Galius was quite happy, as happy as a Magos could be without joy-inducing drugs or the joy of finding a new archeotech. He was really quite happy.

The reason for his happiness was because he had gain the support of the Archmagos Triach and was even able to get several systems in this sector under his personal control and had been given the get go to establish forge worlds in those systems. This was because he had handed over the start charts to the Archmagos he had inside the box, hidden in secret compartments and going by the star charts they indicate locations of ancient lost archeotecnologies, one that was a great boon for both the Imperium and the Mechanicus.

The Archmagos used the artefacts the boy had given him and subdued the Ecclesiarchy and gain numerous benefits for the Mechanicus, and was pleased with Galius so much the Archmagos, he had been given full carte-blanch to do as he wished in this sector.

The only condition that the Archmagos layered on him was to treat the boy, Riser Phenex, who was had recovered and protected the artefacts in the first place as king and give him a ship of his choosing, even if it was a Battleship, as the higher ups had decided to make the boy a Rogue Trader and had even issued out an official warrant for him in record time.

The Archmagos was really keen on keeping the boy happy and had in fact even set aside some space in the nearby shipyard to create his own ship. It was kind of crazy in a sense but the star charts the boy had recovered were more than worth it.

Galius was happy and felt quite indebted to the boy who with just an exchange had changed his life so much. He was going to give him the news and tell him of the deals and ask him about the type of ship he wanted.

"Ah Magos Galius, how are you doing?" Riser greeted him as Galius entered Riser's room.

"I am doing well and by the grace of the Omnissiah all my systems are in optimal conditions and performing at peak condition." Galius replied and observed that the boy was literally knee deep in books and dataslates all ranging from the various laws of the imperium to the types of ships the imperium used. "I see that you are preparing yourself quite well for your new duties Riser."

"That I am." Riser said grimacing a bit. "Being a literal outsider with no knowledge of the imperium, I have a lot to catch up to and learn about running a ship and the logistics behind it and finding a good recruiting world, learning about the cultures of those worlds to better lay down the laws to keep order in the ship, looking up the trading routes, items and commodities of interest, learning the names of the influential noble houses, all this and more and I am feeling really overwhelmed Galius and I don't think I am doing enough right now to prepare myself for my role."

"That is truly quite a lot list of things." Galius remarked blinking as he processed Riser's words and oh, boy, did he underestimate much work a Rogue Trader had to do. "But I am sure you would be up to the task."

"You think so." Riser said, as he slumped into his chair.

"I know so." Galius assured the boy. Honestly, impressed by the boy's work ethics. "Now, I see that you are interested in some of the technologies of the Imperium." Galius said as he picked up a dataslated detailing some blueprints and the theory behind the working of some vehicles and communication devices. "Tell me which ones you are failing to understand?"

"Ah, I am not quite sure how the runes and symbols increase the flow of energy? How do they work exactly?" Riser asked and Galius smile at that question. It was frequently asked question by the citizens of the more industrial worlds who had recently become part of the imperium shunning the wisdom of the Mechanicus as religious nutcases and ignoring the teachings and wisdoms of the Mechanicus cult as nothing but superstitions.

"The runes and symbols work by creating acting as circuits and control the flow of energy in the device. If you study the runes and symbols table you would see that each rune and symbol is assigned to various devices depending on the make of the device and even the size and mass of the device.

This is because like I said the runes act like circuits and like circuits the shape and their placement of the runes is of utmost importance as carefully placed runes and symbols can easily handle the massive power surge and safely dispense it into the air or direct them to other parts of the machine where they can be easily be brought under controlled or simply use those excess energy to fulfil their tasks.

The shapes of the runes have been made as they are so that the excess energy of a machine that not even proper insulation can handle can be directed to other parts of the machine easily there by preventing heat build-up and degradation of the structures of the machine.

The next component when it comes to runes and symbol crafting is the usage of the ink and forging items involved in it. The list of components needed to create an ink for rune crafting is important as well as following the necessary steps to create the right solution. The ink created from the process is quite an efficient energy conducting solution and easily bonds with the molecules of the metal without altering the structural integrity of metallic molecules and protects the metal molecules from degradation via heat and high energy surges."

"Really a solution created from Chicken blood and lime juice?" Riser asked sceptically.

"Yes as both products have the required amount of plasma and acid that allows the other components to blend in well and create the final product and even then Tech priests know better than to use the solution as they tend to be not only volatile but easily peel off machines and cause more harm. Not to mention smell bad in general."

That seem to get a laugh out the boy and Galius was glad for it, no one laughed at his little joke.

"So the ink is more like a highly energy conductive solution with some really fascinating properties?" Riser said as he contemplated the whole thing.

"Yes and you would be remiss if you do not create the solution properly when you attempt to use runes. The solution's properties allows even the most primitive machine to better handle the flow of energy and excess heat thereby increasing their performance and overall operation time, this in and off itself makes it a valuable commodity and vital for the rune crafting. Why masters of rune crafting even breed special animals like the Veltricious Venom Slime, whose skin and vicarious blood contains special organic metals and acids that allows rune crafters to easily created high quality ink in large volumes and export it across the imperium."

"I see, many daily use products do make use of animal parts like animal fats and plant oils like shampoos and other things so I guess a high energy-conductive solution that makes use of is not so far out of realms of possibility. Though I have to ask if you know of the makeup of the solution why not just create it artificially?"

"Mostly because creating it in labs would require not only specialised tools and the rare materials but it is also not a cost effective solution too. The cost of the tools, specialists and materials is just too high and not efficient in producing large quantities of the ink. Even with automation the cost is just too high compared to simply following the current recipes and creating the solution.

The current set up allows even feudal worlds to craft a strong economy by rearing the plants and animals needed to mass produce the ink and creates thriving industries in multiple worlds. Creating special labs to specifically create the ink would create massive political and economic upheaval, creating far reaching consequences not only for the individual worlds but also for entire sectors." Galius explained patiently and Riser seemed to understand.

This was the problem with most industrial worlds especially one that were recently integrated into the imperium. They seemed to get into their heads that they were more educated and thus had the right to dictate the lives of the people that lived in the feudal worlds of the Imperium not knowing the reality of the things for those worlds.

The feudal worlds contrary to popular beliefs were not run by primitive and ignorant rulers who did not accept change and simply kept on living and ruling like tyrants and curbing progress whenever they could.

Sure the imperium did not actively interfere with the development of those worlds but that was because they respected the choices that the people living those worlds and bided their time for their rulers to pass on or outright kill their rulers who stifled the progress of the people.

The good rulers actively sought the aid of the imperium and slowly but surely crafted powerful economies and a stable administrative polity with the help of the Imperium and brought their people into a golden age and made sure that their line ruled the planet for generations to come while preserving the customs and traditions of their people and forge it into one that even bleed into the way of life of the sector itself.

Just because they were primitive and ignorant about the galaxy did not mean that they were stupid. Many people living in the hive worlds seemed to forget that.

"Though while the ink is important in rune crafting there is another more important thing and one without which the very foundation of rune crafting cannot even exist as it is."

"And that is?"

"Why, Geometry of course."

"Huh?!" Riser mumbled confused by his answered.

"Geometry is the science of shape and size, one that is important in rune crafting as one has to shape and design the runes in such a way to get the maximum benefits. The positioning of the runes, the thickness of the ink, the shape of the surface, the area that the runes cover and many other factors is decided using the geometrical knowledge that we have and thus craft the most perfect runes.

It is one of the purest applications of geometrical knowledge on a practical scale, one whose mastery is an art form in and of itself. Many Magos keep on searching for that one perfect rune, that one perfect rune that is the culmination of a lifetime worth of knowledge, skill and effort and one that they can proudly say that it is theirs and that they have taken a step in reaching the wisdom of the ancients." Galius explained while reminiscing how he one travelled that path too when he was a Rune Priest but found his calling as an Artisan creating and designing crafts that could sail across the void and stars.

"And what about the hymns and oils?" Riser asked snapping Galius out of his thoughts.

"The hymns are a way to communicate with the machine spirit and placate it. As you may know that music is quite codified and the beats and tempos and notes can all be mathematically be arrange and interpreted in binary, the sacred language of the machines.

What we say we are communicating with the machine spirits via the hymns and songs we mean it literally as the musical notes and structures of the hymns and songs is created in such a way that allows it for the machine spirit to easily interpret them despite the language they are sung in, which can be quite the problem when there are so many languages in the imperium.

This is why we Tech Priests are quite stringent about singing the hymns in a proper tune and singing the right hymns and songs at the right time as unlike Tech Priests, normal humans cannot speak binary fluently or are able to perceive the reply of the machine spirit like we do, most of all they do not want to add the added parts to speak to the machine spirits too not without them getting blown up first then they get all too enthusiastic all of a sudden.

I don't get them sometimes, wouldn't it much less painful and efficient to swap out their organic parts without getting them blown up first?" that got a chuckle out of Riser and Galius continued on with his explanation.

"Still like I said the hymns and songs are part of the communication aspect with the machine spirit which the ritual and the oils help too. The rituals and oils along with the hymns create a sympathetic link with the machine spirit via a combination of sound, empathic imprints and binary conversion.

As you know that sound is nothing but another form of energy, the rituals are designed in such a way that it transform the users body into a form of living circuit and via the combination of oils, sounds, energy and empathic imprinting, converts the songs into a different type of energy and emotional imprints which allows a person to communicate with the machine spirit." Galius explained and smile as he saw Riser's face go into contemplation and show an expression of understanding. Galius was really lucky to have found someone who without being part of the Mechanicus still understood their ways so well. "There is more to it but I will leave those for later now what else has you confused?"

"Ah I don't seem to understand how the engines of the Lemun Russ are so efficient and how they seemed to run on just about any fuel source, from crude oil to even water?"

"Ah that is an interesting question." Galius said and began to explain the theory behind the engine, the history of it and why the engine was designed in such a way.

Time passed by as he went on explaining and clarifying Riser's doubts and found himself even debating about the finer details of the technological marvels which work on principles that resembled more like magic than science.

He was having quite the good time but alas, all good things must come to an end.

"It is getting late now Riser and you need to get some rest to properly refresh yourself to better handle your work." a bit sad that he had to end their little session.

"Do I have to?" Riser whined as he looked equally sad that their discussion had to end.

"Yes." Galius replied, before launching into a lecture how a good day's rest could do to one's working efficiency.

"Okay, I get it. I'll get some rest." Riser said cutting off the explanation mid-point.

"Good and before I forget I was here to ask whether or not you had decided on the ship type you would be using."

"Oh that." Riser said perking up, "I have decided on the Oberon-class Battleship. I found it to be quite up to my mark and the modifications I am requesting should be easy enough to implement."

"Really?" Galius said shocked at the boy's choice of ship. Most Rogue Traders normally stuck to cruisers and freighters due to their huge cargo capacity and good power to mass ratio. A battleship was the opposite of a cargo hauler with vast swaths of the ship dedicated to weapons and redundant armour points, for maximum survivability and immense firepower.

An Oberon-class Battleship was also one of the largest battleships around, measuring at 15 Km long in length, 2 km in height and 3 km in breadth, was faster than an invincible-class battleship and had armour that far outclassed most battleship. It was a behemoth plain and simple, not something a Rogue Trader should even dare to command but here Riser was asking for it to be his first ship.

He looked at the dataslate that Riser handed over and went over the list of modifications he listed.

Apart from its usual weapons, the Oberon-class Battleship would have two manufactorums, cloning vats, a temple, a palace-fortress for Riser's residence, High-power agurs and lots of extra point base defences, a powered-hull to further increase the durability of the ship, Heavy Void-shields, Warp shields and fitted crew quarters that would be more like small cities in their own right.

Galius was unsure of the capabilities of the ship on both its offensive capabilities and its support capabilities as the Oberon in its base form was not the most powerful battleship-class and had a really high maintenance cost even for a Battleship due to its specs, and the modifications would skewer those numbers even more.

Galius wondered if the boy was thinking long term if he wanted his first ship to be an Oberon. He was also going to have to be extremely lucky for the Mechanicus to grant him an Oberon Battleship even if they had one to spare which had been recently salvaged in a nearby sector with its crew lost to the perils of the warp, leaving it empty and drifting across the void.

Galius just hope that Riser was well aware of the immense upkeep cost that came with the privilege of commanding such a powerful vessel and had planned for it accordingly.

"Very well, we do have an Oberon Battleship that had been recently salvaged. It is not damaged in any sense but there are some rituals that need to be performed to sanctify the Battleship and build all the modifications you have requested which should take about 3 months, after which it will be delivered to you with the utmost haste." Galius said, knowing just how quick the ship could be modified on Mars and it was only the long journey across the warp that would take the most time.

"Well that would give me time to find good recruits and crew and get some other resources too." Riser said letting loose a sigh of relief, he must be happy to have a time-table to work with.

"The Mechanicus is also willing to give you a special warrant that would allow you to purchase and buy rights to build certain technologies, Riser. It would do you good to go over the list and plan out a suitable trade model." Galius added, handing Riser a dataslate that contained the list and all the necessary information, "Though I have to warn you Riser that you will just have to send a 60% of the manufactured technologies as Tithe to the Imperium for getting the privilege of manufacturing these technologies."

"That's great." Riser shouted in joy "I am forever grateful for that Galius."

"Oh don't thank me." Galius replied waving away his thanks, "Just remember the Mechanicus and the help they have given you bring back lost acheotechnology and pay your tithes and taxes, and we would consider the deal as fair." That was all the Mechanicus asked and frankly it was a cheap price to pay as most of the items were quite cheap and could easily be manufactured in any forge world so it was not a great loss for the mechanicus and besides it was not like one or two manufactorums could out-produce multiple Forge worlds.

The fact that Riser had to give 60% of his produced goods as tithe to the Imperium which was more than what the other Rogue Trader who gave basically NIL as tax and tithe, a condition set by the Archmagos for allowing Riser to build sacred technologies like the Quake Cannon of the Banehammer and the Volcano Cannon of the Shadowsword and the various Las-lock Rifles, the Las-rifles and the varied power armours fit for a normal human, would put easily put him on the map for the various hereteks and other traders who would clamour to trade with him and keep a close tab on him and his ship.

Combined that with Riser wishing commanding a Battleship and Riser would have a difficult time building up his empire due to its extremely high upkeep costs and make him susceptible to some of the more elaborate schemes of the Mechanicus, Ministorum and the Inquisition to make him dependent on their aid and thus bind his loyalty to the Imperium as a whole. The higher ups were really interested in the boy for some reason.

"Now get some rest and we will continue our discussion another time." Galius said as he left the room and Riser went to sleep in his bed.

As Galius went to his room to rest for the day, he wondered just what was Riser planning and what would the boy achieve in the future and how the schemes of the various factions of the Imperium would affect the boy's future.

##############################

The next day Riser woke up and felt refresh.

Yesterday's discussion with Galius had enlightened him of the various technologies that the Imperium used and gain insight on the many new fields of technology and sorcery itself and he marvelled at how the Mechanicus blended the two together so seamlessly into their rituals and daily life all the while still allowing even the most primitive of minds to easily grasp the process and become an enginseer so easily yet still spend a lot of time becoming a good Tech Priest.

Time, that was spent on mastering on not just practicing and perfecting their techniques but also communicating and understanding the spirits of the machines themselves and their unique quirks, learning the rules and the reasons for why they were there and preparing themselves as they were given knowledge that shattered and rebuilt and shattered their concept of reality and repeat the process until their dying breath.

Riser without any doubt or shame would admit that the men and women of the Mechanicus, mere mortals and humans, one that he looked down upon with disdain had gain his utmost respect, even if they came of as religious nutcases and cultist. Riser respected their dedications and the immense work they did.

Riser was becoming quite enamoured with the Mechanicus and the Imperium as a whole as he read more and more about the Imperium and its 10,000 years of history. It was just a mind-boggling concept that a polity like the Imperium as vast as it seemed could survived for 10,000 years despite having such a slow, inefficient bureaucracy and being beset from all sides by enemies both within and without.

He wondered why the Emperor called the Imperium dying a slow death when it had stood tall for so long but he guessed that the Emperor wanted the Imperium to thrive not just survive and exist in the state it was currently in.

And to do that Riser had to use the power he had been granted and explore the new worlds and realms.

He was quite scared about going to the different worlds and realms and search for lost relics and new technologies which was why he was busy preparing himself familiarising with the technologies and the tactics used by the Imperium and commissioning a Battleship. He would need all the help he could get.

He was also on the lookout for people of interest whom he could add to his Saint Peerage and use gain access to the skills embedded in the Saint Pieces. Even though the Emperor had told him that he had used Devil magic to craft the pieces, Riser still could not wrap his head around how powerful the pieces were, thus he was looking for men and women of great merit and skills and looking over them with a fine comb. Men and women who would no doubt make great additions to any peerage back home were being examined with a doubtful eye and discarded as Riser found them wanting.

He had been doing that for many days, reading and learning and scrutinising the list of people. But today, he was not going to shift through thousands of dataslates and books, to read about the history of the Imperium or learn about the technologies that they employed or even look up list of viable recruitment worlds while making a short list for the officer position for his ship.

No, Riser was going to test his new power. He had put off testing it for some time but he could do so no longer for he wanted to learn what lied on the other side.

Riser closed his eyes and delved deep into his mind and found his flames eager to obey his command. Yet it was not his flames or devil power that he sought and thus he dug deeper and found a spark inside of him beckoning him to command it and flue it.

He touched that spark and found himself filled with new knowledge and found himself knowing the intricacies of his new power. There were two ways he could use his. Riser could open portals of various sizes and connect them to other realms, he could also create structures around the portal and make them permanent allowing him to create a permanent path to the new realm or He could also simply teleport himself across the plains of reality if he just wished to travel alone.

Since he was just testing his powers for now Riser decided to go with the second mode and closed his eyes and activated his powers, propelling him across the Multiverse and thus he took the first step to achieve his goal with the first stop being his home-universe.

########################

Riser opened his eyes and found himself in the same place where he had met the strange woman and looking around he saw that he was still in Paris.

He exited the alleyway and went up to the local newspaper outlet and found that it was the day he had been flirting with the woman despite spending almost several weeks in the Imperium, that was May 5, 2010.

"Um, excuse me sir. May I ask the time please? My watch seemed to have some problem with it." Riser asked one of men who was buying a newspaper.

"Sure, it is 11:24 A.M."

"Thank you sir." Riser said as he left the stall.

He tried to recall the details of what he had been doing on this day and the time of his departure and thinking about it he recalled that he had left his hotel at 9 in the morning and it was around 10 that he had his breakfast in a local restaurant.

"So if I took around a few 10-15 minutes to get to the place where I flirted with the woman and put in some 10-20 minutes of small talk. I am left with a time-line of my departure and return at between 11 o'clock to 11:10 A.M. which means only a few minutes have passed by despite me spending weeks in the Imperium." Riser deduced.

It was an interesting phenomena Riser deduced and he wanted to see if this would held true if he spent months here at home and see how much time had passed in the Imperium.

"I wonder, how does the 21st Century tech stack up to that of the Imperium?" Riser wondered recalling that Galius had explained how the imperium did not have a standard tech base due to it being so large that it stretched the supply lines to its limits and the varied culture and government types of individual worlds meant that each world followed its own brand of production and approach technology in a different way.

Riser had gone over the list of the worlds and their tech base and wanted to see where Earth and the Underworld would rank as.

"I guess that I have to do some research." Riser said and headed to the local public library to study about the technology of his world. "Maybe I could even set up a business. Galius did say that I had to learn about economics and business now that I was an official Rogue Trader, so setting up a business should be a nice way to get some experience."

The question now was how and what kind of business should he set up?

"Ah, well I'll look into it when I am in the library." Riser shrugged as he headed to the library and made plans for his economic domination.

##################

"The Technology of this world is quite primitive." Riser concluded as he put down the latest tech manual.

It had been a week and Riser had scoured the library and the bookstores for any and all tech manuals and latest science and gadget magazines and frowned at how primitive his world seemed when compared to the average hive-worlds of the Imperium.

He while had been expecting such thing due to the ridiculously advanced nature of the Imperium and their varied tech base, he was still hoping that Earth would be rated a bit higher that it was due to the fact that the some of the worlds of the imperium had literal cavemen inhabiting them.

"I can't say I was not expecting it but…it is still quite the shame." Riser mumbled as he compared the average technology between Earth and the Imperium and was disappointed at the massive disparity between the two tech bases.

Still this meant that Riser now knew what kind of business he was going to enter and with his knowledge of the varied tech base of the Imperium Riser knew that he could easily become a massive business tycoon by introducing ' _revolutionary technologies_ ' to the world which were out-dated by the standards of the Imperium.

"And I have just enough capital to jump start my business." Riser mused as he wondered just what kind of Revolutionary Technology he should introduce to the world first.

"Hmmn, I think I should look into electrical engines that last for days and months. That should be enough to jump start my company." Riser smirked as he thought about the idea.

He was going to have to do some initial investments like buying a warehouse, securing some contracts buying a factory, building up the tools and assembly line to create the cars, tool the production line properly and… "Wow I have a lot of work to do." Riser thought as he went over the list of things he had to do in order to set up his business. And that was not counting the legal side of things.

It was going to take some time to set everything up but nothing that judicious amount of money could not hasten. And with that in mind Riser pick up his phone and called someone who could help him.

"Hello mom, it's me Riser. You see…I am in need of some money."

#########################

 **One week later. May 16** **th** **, 2010  
Phenex Mansion, Underworld**

Riser had somehow convinced his parents to go with his idea of setting up a new business at such a young age. But they were still sceptical about it especially since it was an automobile company that was going to market new technology as Riser made plans to introduce a new line of electrical cars.

This had made his parents sceptical about his plans as not only was the automobile industry controlled by business giants who had years of experience, history and reputation that had seen them through some of the worst of times, combine that with him propagating new technology something that while would garner attention would still be subjugated to suspicion due to not having a brand name attached to it that would give the populace a sense of reliability and recognition that was associated with well-known brands.

That was not to mention that if Riser chose to follow a bad business model or made a bad deal due to his inexperience that his company might not last long enough to made profits or be subsume by the bigger companies. The nature of the technology involved would also attract business tycoons and politicians like moths to flames. It was an utter mess and this had made them hesitant to support their son.

Sure they could give him the capital to jumpstart his company but due to the complications involved and the uncertainty of the company making a reliable profit, thus his parents wanted him to give them a small demonstration and had ordered him to create a car with all the technology he was seeking to implement.

Thus Riser set out to build his car which was quite an easy task as all Riser had to do was order the required materials and mould them into shape with his magic. From the circuits to the frame of the car Riser moulded them and turned it into a thing of beauty.

Riser spent day and night moulding and building the car, and programming the various electronics and computers, setting the wires correctly, building the circuits from ground up and more. Even with magic it took him 8 days of constant work to finish it and today was the day where he was going to unveil the car to his family.

There in front of the family garage stood the members of the Phenex family, his parents, his elder brother Ruval and his younger sister Ravel. The stood in front of the car and examined his handiwork.

"So what do you think about it father?" Riser asked as he showed them the car.

"It is quite good and its engine is different from the ones I have seen in other cars and the lack of an exhaust is quite interesting too. Not to mention the display panels and the driving wheel." His father commented as his eyes roamed around the vehicle, absorbing every detail of the car and taking apart is capabilities using the details he was able to find.

"I don't see what is so good about this. Isn't it just a Maruti Alto?" Ravel interjected as she pitched in her own opinion of the car.

"I am not going to even ask how you know about it being a Alto."

"The only thing left now is to test drive the car. Only then we can be sure about its performance." His father commented and eyed Ruval who seemed to be rearing to sit in the car and try it out.

"Ruval go and drive the car around the estate would you. I'll give you three hours to test drive this thing" his father commanded and Ruval giving them a two finger salute sat inside the car and started it.

"Father, is my car going to be all right?" Riser asked his father nervously, as he saw Ruval skid the car out of the garage, nearly missing some of the other cars in the garage.

"That would depend on the overall structural integrity of your car and the amount of punishment it can take." His father nonchalantly replied, not bothered by his eldest son's antics at all.

Riser could only see the dispersing smoke trail left by his brother in fear and silently prayed that his brother would not mess up his car too much.

"Come now Riser let's head to the rooftop, from there we would be able to see how your brother is driving the car." His mother offered and surely from the roof of the garage they could clearly see Ruval driving the Alto and pull all sorts of crazy stunts with it.

Ruval drove the car off the ledges, into the small forest, off the road and into the golf course then into the forest again and into the hills where it performed multiple jumps and nearly went into one of the ponds.

For three whole hours Riser had to endure seeing his brother pull off the insane stunts and watch as his car while retaining its previous shape, sport multiple dents and most of its paint being scratch out and was completely covered in mud and dust, with even the tyre threads being worn out.

All in all it was a mess but his brother was sporting a big smile on his face as he step out of the car. "I must say brother this car is a really good piece of work."

"Really?" Riser asked a bit surprised by his brother's praise.

"Yes and the fact that it is still able to even move after all the stunts I pulled and that too at an average speed of 40km per hour is insane. Really brother, I was not expecting an electric car to move so smoothly nor have such a high top speed of 210km per hour not to mention that I have only used 6.3% of the battery and with plenty more to spare. You have really out done yourself brother." Ruval praised him and it was an honest praise too as the car truly deserved it.

"Thank you big brother." Riser replied basking in his brother's praise.

"Although…"

"Although what brother?"

"There are still some things which could be improved upon."

"And those might be?" Riser asked whipping out a pen and notepad.

Seeing his brother's action Ruval grinned and began to list of the things that could be improved upon.

"First the transmissions needs some fine tuning it was a bit wonky at times, then you need someone to design the interior to make it look more appealing, look into the suspensions to make it more comfortable, add in some features like GPSs systems, a good audio and music system, better seat placement and finally get it some fresh coat of paint. All in all these just some nitpicks but one that the competition would challenge you on all front and not let you go on that." Ruval commented before asking one thing that was bugging him.

"Say Riser where did you get the tires for this car, they lasted very long and were quite good to despite my best efforts to burn them out. Which company from are they again?"

"What do mean which company? I made the tyre alongside the car." Riser replied a bit confused at his brother's question.

"You did?!" Ruval asked indecorously. "Well…um…that's amazing. Can you supply tyres for my other cars too brother of mine?" Ruval asked sweetly making Riser take a step back from his smiling brother.

"I'll see what I can do." Riser replied trying his best not to look disturbed by his brother's actions.

"That is all I ask." Ruval said giving Riser a pat, he then began to whistle a strange tune and with a skip in his steps went inside.

"You sure did make you brother happy." His mother commented blandly giving his father an accusing look which his father replied by whistling innocently.

Riser looked at the byplay and decided that he did not want to know what that meant and began to check on the car for the damages and the going over the data of the test drive.

"Say Riser, how did you make the car?" his mother asked as she examined the car.

"With magic of course." Riser replied.

His replied must have startled her as she raised her eyebrows and said "Oh, is that so."

"Yes…" Riser replied feeling a bit apprehensive at the now scrutinizing gaze of his mother "…did I do something wrong?"

"Yes." His mother replied, "I believe that you are going to set up you company and factory in the human world correct?" she asked and Riser nodded. "Then using magic to manufacture the cars is a no go as it would jepordise the secrecy of the supernatural. And unless you have some sort of manufacturing method up your sleeve to reduce the production costs that is not reliant on magic. Your father and I can in no good conscious approve of you selling the car and setting up your company."

"Oh don't worry mother." Riser replied nonchalantly as he breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing his mother's words. "I have already taken that into account and it was why I chose to model the car after the Alto. It is a cost effective design and with my modifications it would be much cheaper to produce in the long run."

"I think that you can do better than the Alto as a cheap design base but since you have decided I won't push it but give my blessings for your future." His father interjected.

"Also Riser, you must take care and learn to balance between low costs and quality. You can go for cheap alternatives but remember you are a Phenex and as a Phenex you must not compromise on the quality of you products ever and I would expect you to live up to that, by giving your customers products of the highest quality and you must learn to balance that with its prices." His mother added.

"Do that Riser, and you would have successfully laid the foundation of a large business empire one that is sure to last for centuries."

Hearing his parents words Riser really wanted to tell them about the Imperium and the vast technology they possessed and the various manufacturing techniques they had which was a masterpiece of low cost, great reliability and good quality.

And Riser was going to use one of the lesser manufacturing techniques due to the low technology and lack of some of the more exotic materials that were vital to build fabricators to further cut the production costs.

Riser knew that he was going to dominate the market with his products for years to come but seeing his parents support and give him advice and their expertise on the matter made him realise that he should not do this half-heartedly and Riser decided that he would decimate his competitors with everything he got and not let them challenge his family name.

"Mother, father." Riser said looking at his parents with firm conviction. "I promise that the company I would establish would not be the best in the world but also last for a millennium."

Yep, Riser was going to unleash hell on his competitors.

########################

Florence Phenex, Marquis of the Phenex Household was currently in his study thinking about the new changes that had occurred and how it would shape the future. His wife, Vivian, was also contemplating on the same topic and both of them were discussing about it and thinking about what steps they should take.

"So what is the plan Florence?" His wife asked him and honestly speaking he was also a bit lost too as the technologies Riser had invented would have far reaching consequences.

"To be honest I don't have a plan, Vivian. I am still in the process of digesting the aspects of the car and how they would all impact the various associated industries." Florence said sighing as he looked at the blueprints of the car and its individual parts. "The success of this car would have a far reaching consequence on multiple industries, especially the oil industry and that in and of itself would earn Riser lots of enemies in the industry and even in the field of politics on the international scale and would their best to make sure that the company is destroyed or the technology banned."

"We also can't use our families political clout too as that might aggravate the other supernatural communities and see it as us interfering in the mundane matters and things might escalate from there." His wife added being quick on the uptake. "Well that means Europe is out and so are the two American continents as I don't want Riser to be dragged into the politics of those continents. That just leaves the Asian and Australian continents for Riser to set up his base of operation."

Florence smiled upon hearing his wife's words, trust her to find some solution to the problem. "Not Africa?"

"Unless Riser decides to suddenly become a conquering dictator, no, not to mention the extremely high Nundu population and other mystical creatures. That is not mentioning how the Egyptian pantheon while are on friendly terms with us won't be too happy with us setting up shop in the African continent."

"So Asia and Australia." Florence said agreeing with his wife's reasoning.

"Yes, there are several countries there that are quite secular in nature making it quite easy to gain access there without annoying any factions too much and due to their less developed state gives Riser to cheaper labour and a market that had high demand for cheap and fuel efficient cars. Something that Riser's car would easily dominate with good marketing." Vivian remarked and Florence nodded at that.

"The only problem I see is that Riser might be limiting himself too much by just focusing on the automobile industry." She added.

"Truly?" Florence asked a bit confused by her statement.

"Yes." Vivian said seriously and Florence knew that she was scheming something. "The car engine that Riser has created is a masterpiece and a work of art. The fact that it was able to provide enough power to run a car up to 210 Km per hour and only use about 6% of power after such rigorous test drive means that the engine if up scaled properly could be used to propel other vehicles like ships, bikes, planes and even military vehicles.

It could also be used as a power source for homes and buildings and even if it fails to provide electricity to an entire city, it would still be enough to corner the invertor market and its rechargeable nature would just make it so much more appealing than the current models out there."

Hearing her point those out Florence could not help but be astonished by her words. Those were truly some valid applications for the engine.

"And that is just some of the few things I can think on top of my head, I am sure there are other applications for the engine." she continued, "I have yet to list of the benefits of the tyres as well which despite being so worn out still had such good grip and stability to it making it ideal to replace most types of conventional tyres in the market and thus could easily become a customer favourite too."

"True, true," Florence mumbled as he contemplated his wife's words. "And due to the car being so brand new and unique most motor servicing shops would not be able to repair or service it and if we set up specialised servicing shop that would cut down the risk of people discovering the secrets of the technology by a considerable margin and give us some extra revenue."

Yes that was one path his son's company could head towards. "The rechargeable nature of the car engine would make the people flock towards the servicing stations if we offer to recharge it for a small price with some free tuning and servicing. Add in some customisation options for a small cost and it would drastically cut down the complaints that people would have for making people reliant on the company to recharge their engines." There would be some problems but Florence could really see it work.

"We would really have to have high quality servicing force for the company if you plan is to succeed." His wife added and Florence agreed.

"Also if Riser is able to manufacture the car along with its interior at a low cost then we may even have an in to the furniture industry too. You have to admit that the seats of the car were beautiful and comfortable too." Vivian added and Florence was now having a headache from hearing about all the number of opportunities that they now had all due to his son building a car.

His family now had a chance to make their mark and earn big profits and prestige on Earth but that would also put them on the map of the mundane politics and make them a target which would prove troublesome and that was without mentioning their supernatural backers and how the other factions and pantheons would begin to make their own moves on the mundane businesses and drag the faction politics into the mess.

Despite this Florence was not about to tell his son to give up on his project and would do his best to encourage it, after all this was his son's first work and stopping him might snuff out the absolute brilliant ingenuity and drive his son was showing and turn him into something hollow.

The nature of devils was such that when one's passion was snuffed out it was rarely ever ignited again and turns the person into a hollow husk of a Devil, who could become a monster in his quest to fill the emptiness of their soul. For a Phenex this was even worse as their very flames would be snuffed out and might even result in a slow agonising death.

No, giving up and scarping the project was not an option as he did not want that fate to befall his son and to be honest Florence really like the idea behind the project too and wanted to see how far it could go.

"Yes Vivian" Florence addressed his wife, "the number of opportunities before us are numerous and would grant us incredible amount of prestige, wealth and influence but to fully take advantage of them we would have to expend a lot of our influence and create new bonds and contacts to ensure smooth sailing." Smiling he asked his wife. "That would mean that we are going to be quite busy for the coming months and you would miss out on your tea parties, are you ready to make such sacrifice?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Vivian replied leaning forward and giving a light tap to his nose, "Also I'll have you know that I can both create new contacts and gather information without missing out on any of the tea parties. I am after all good at multitasking unlike you."

"I doubt that Vivian."

"Care to prove me wrong." She said challenging his claim with an impish smile on her face, taunting with her seductive gaze and what happened next was better left among the two lovers, though Florence inwardly decided to give his best in making his son's project come true, after all this was the best stress relief sex he had in years.

#####################

 **Three weeks later  
Phenex Mansion, Underworld.**

The party to commemorate the opening of his company was underway and Riser loved every second of it. It was grand, pompous and over the top, featuring guests that held immense sway in the underworld and were considered giants in their respective crafts.

From Lords who brew the most magnificent wines to the ones that owned the best orchards in the underworld to those that were publisher of countless books and keepers of secrets that could shatter the underworld with well-placed words. From politics, economy and administration, the men and women gathered in this ballroom were people of great import barring the Dukes and the Satans themselves, these people were the pillars of their society and Riser was eagerly mingling with them and establishing ties that he knew would help in the future.

It was really good practice for him as Riser knew no doubt that he would in the future have to mingle with the nobles and lords of the Imperium and would not have the same advantage that he had right now later on without doing something truly momentous in the Imperium, which he was not eager to do so without getting a few centuries worth of experience first.

Here though he could mingle with the lords of the Underworld and learn a thing or two about impressing others and learn to make others own him favours and the likes, and so far Riser considered that he was doing quite well.

"…do consider my daughter for you peerage Riser. I know that she would fit right in."

"Of course, Lady Bifron. It would be my pleasure to have someone from you house as a member of my peerage." Riser replied thinking about the consequences and benefit of having a member of the Bifron family as his peerage member. "Though I would like to say that I have some strict requirements and thus even though I wish to add someone like her, if she fails to stand up to my requirements than I am afraid I would have to reject her." yeah, he was going to have to play.

"Oh, are you looking for something specific?" looking more than a bit intrigued at the info.

"Yes, but I would like to keep my requirements a secret so as to not stir up a huge fuss." Riser replied, not wanting to say too much. He left the Bifron matriarch with some few parting words and joined the other guests.

Over the course of the party he received many offers from the other lords some offering some good deals and some wanting to outright buy his company out of his hands as they thought him inexperienced and naïve.

Yes, he was inexperienced but that did not mean he was that inexperienced to not see through the transparent attempts to threaten him and buy his company which was just going to grow and dominate the markets and become an industrial giant on its own. That still did not stop the others from trying though.

It was really a stark contrast to the previous parties and balls that he had attended, where he was mostly mingling with the heirs and gossiping about inane things. Here and now, Riser was now officially in the big leagues and he knew that he had to keep his guard up or like the demons of old they would tell him sweet lies and ensnare him in plots that would either ruin him or make him a puppet to their whims, and if they were truly devious they would make him want to be their willing puppet and gladly march towards his own doom.

It made his spine tingle but not out of fear or anxiety but with excitement. It made him feel more alive than he had ever been as his blood sang with joy and his heart raced with unbridled excitement. The whole thing made him feel like home, as strange as it was, and Riser realised that it was his devil side that was the cause of this excitement and Riser now knew why Devils as a whole could not resist a good plot.

' _What are we a bunch of addicts that are addicted to plots and schemes?'_ Riser snorted as he finished his drink. _'Hmmn, Moonlight Eternal Apple, maybe I could export it to the Imperium. I am sure that the Genetors would be all over it and be clamouring to uncover the secrets of its ability to extend one's life by centuries and give a person mild regenerative abilities.'_

' _Yes, I'll do just that and with the time-dilation between the worlds, the apples decade long harvest cycle would be negligible and I could harvest them in tonnes and made a mad, mad profit out of them. Heh, I wonder if the Genetors would be able to modify the Moonlight Eternal Apple and increase its yield and growth rate. Now that would be a huge coup.'_

' _Come to think of it, I can literally make a killing by growing some of the many exotic plants that are abundant in the Underworld._ ' The more Riser thought about it the more he found the idea appealing. _'It would also allow me to earn profits and I would not have to pay the tithe for it too due to it not being a part of the deal I made with the Mechanicus.'_

Yes, being a Rogue Trader that dealt in not weapons, technologies and tonnes of manufactured finished goods but in fruits and exotic plants had a strange appeal to it and Riser would love to see the faces of the other Rogue Traders when they realised just what were his main exports.

"Enjoying the party, little brother." Ruval said as he gave him a light pat.

"Yes." Riser replied with a smile. He was really enjoying this night and his mind was filled with ideas and plans about the future.

"Ah, I see that you have awakened you inner devil Riser. I see plots, plans and mischief dance in your eyes, waiting to be put into motion and marvel at the chaos they create." Ruval grinned as he raised his glass for him in acknowledgment. "Though do take care, Riser," Ruval said his face taking on a serious expression, "not to let the excitement of the plots and mischief rule over your life and blind you towards the obvious."

Riser knew what his brother was warning about and he vowed to temper himself and control the rising urge to become a Magnificent Bastard. No, really it was like an inborn urge to plot and be as grandiose and over the top as possible.

"I will brother but I am not sure how good well I will be able to control myself when I look up to someone like you." Riser jibbed and he could practically feel the tick mark on Ruval's head.

"I don't know what you are talking brother." Ruval said with a strained smile.

"Your wedding anniversary party that we held last year and the whole convoluted planning we had to do to keep it a secret from elder sister, so that you could surprise her." Riser replied with a deadpanned stare. "I did not understand then why we had to do all those complicated things in such a roundabout way but now I know that you just love being able to plan such a convoluted mess of a plan and watch us squirm as we rushed headlong not understanding that we were being used for your amusement."

Ruval, in the first time in many years that Riser had known, pouted. "Come on. Teressa loved it and don't tell me you did not have fun too while planning all that."

"True but then we did the same thing again for Ravel's birthday when you hijacked her school's function and turned into a giant birthday party." Riser said pointedly, "Don't think I have still not forgiven you for throwing me into the den of hungry wolves that were your fangirls."

Human Fangirls were scary but Devil Fangirls, they made succubae look tame when it came to seducing their target even going as far as to try and seduce their siblings to get to their target. Poor Ravel would never look at her seniors the same way again after that party.

"Ah…sorry." Ruval said with a sheepish smile knowing that the event had somewhat scarred his two youngest siblings. "Still don't deny that you didn't had fun, you horndog." Ruval said nudging him no doubt wanting him to remember how Riser had somehow gotten laid with multiple girls during that event. It was a really good thing that Devils had low fertility or else there would probably have been multiple girls carrying his child. Devil constitution was weird like that.

' _I really have to check up on them now that I think about it.'_ Riser thought as he was reminded of the girls. "I won't deny it but that is simply another reason why you are banned from planning any celebrations, Ruval."

At those words Ruval began to sulk as his whole body began to emit an aura of despair. "Don't remind me, Riser and I had such grand plans for you birthday this year."

' _Thank the Emperor that you aren't._ ' Riser silently prayed giving his thanks that his brother was not inn charge. He really did not want his sister to be more mentally scarred form the experience. _'And Sona and Rias complain how embarrassing and scarring the antics of their elder siblings are. They should witness Ruval and his brand of mischief, only then they would know the true meaning of scarring and embarrassing._ '

Yeah, he was not going to let Ruval plan his birthday ever again.

"Oh, well I am sure that I would still get lots of opportunities in the future to plan some events and when that time comes I will make them so grand that they would be the talk for centuries to come." Ruval promised, "For now enjoy this party Riser, tonight is your night. Go and celebrate to your heart's content." And he blended back into the crowd of devils.

Seeing his brother go, Riser wondered just what kind of parties his brother would throw if had the resources of the Imperium at the back of his call.

' _Let's not go down that dark road shall we._ ' Riser shuddered and made a note to himself to never make Ruval in charge of his parties when he was in the Imperium. He feared his brother would rearrange entire star systems if he was put in charge of arranging a party.

Which brought about the question, when should he reveal his status of being a Rogue Trader to his parents?

' _Maybe after I get my business running and find myself some Queens that might be the best time to reveal my status.'_ Yes, that sounded like a good idea and it was a totally sensible one that allowed him to not only buy time to explain things properly but also prepare and show his parents the benefits of his contract.

' _Ah, well I will worry about that later. Now let's see what the strange gossips and deals the others have to offer._ ' Riser thought as he put the plans about revealing his status in the back of his mind and joined the others in the party, and enjoyed playing the ancient art and tradition of noble intrigue.

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Ruval sighed as he saw his brother mingle with the nobles and but the four princes was Riser handling things well, almost too well like he was doing this for years.

But Ruval guessed that all that flattery and sweet talk and mood reading skills that Riser had learnt to seduce women had transferred over to his socialising skills as he weaved through the crowd of nobles charming the ladies with his smile and confident attitude while impressing the lords and giving them the appropriate respect they deserved, a by-product of impressing the fathers and brothers of his target and making them his friends all to get to bed of the girl he set his eyes on.

Ruval knew that Riser must have used those skills in Paris and polished them to great heights as he deflected thinly veiled insults and praise and kept his cool and played his part of a confident playboy while getting away with deals that would make even the Fallen green with envy.

"…And there is the fifth lord who fell to Riser's playboy act." His Queen and Wife commented. "Even a blind man could see that the deal is too one-sided towards Riser and what does he get out of it, a vague promise to upgrade his greenhouses. He does know that Riser runs an automobile company right not a farming industry."

"That I can agree but Riser flattered him and buttered him up a bit too much that the man seemed to have forgotten that not to mention Riser had slowly been refilling the man's wine cup with Honey Grape Juice, and judging by the amount the man drank he is not going to be too coherent and would be in a great jolly mood for the rest of the party." Ruval said as saw Riser butter the man more by giving him advices on how to win the hearts of his wife more and get a nice present for his daughter.

"Can't believe that the man is Seekvaria's Father, the two are nothing alike." His queen commented and Ruval had to agree with her statement as the man was just too jolly while his daughter was the perfect example of an ice queen.

"Well at least I can understand why Seekvaria is like that but the Agares family have nothing on the Sitri and their weird personalities." Ruval added and boy, oh boy, were the personalities of all the Sitri family members different as night and day.

"True." His queen conceded as she continued her observation. "Do you think that Riser is going to accept the offers that the lords are making?"

And Ruval knew which offer she was talking about "You mean the offer of sending a member of their family to become his peerage member?"

"Yes"

"No, not unless said family member is extremely beautiful and is able to charm my brother but those types are much better suited for political marriages disregarding some excruciating circumstances, thus I am afraid the nobles would just have to settle for the being conned by my brother to butter him up for now." Really their plans and ploys were quite transparent once he got down to it and Ruval knew that they were just humouring Riser and letting him get a taste of how the deals went to create a better relationship with him.

The Lords were playing the long game not making too much obvious ploys nor risky moves but one that nurtured a good working relationship with his brother. The fact that they were even doing this much, was a sign that the gathered Lords regarded Riser as someone with great potential and were willing to nurture that potential to its height and reap the harvest they were sowing this night.

Ruval was really interested how his brother's future would develop from here on out.

For now he would do what the Lords of the underworld were doing, stay back and see how his brother grows and the future he would create for himself.

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 **AN: Yes this is not the most polished chapter but frankly after rewriting it three times this is the best I could offer for now. I might decide to rewrite some parts of it but I would need input on that and thus Please Review it and give me your honest opinions on the matter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The night's festivities had given Riser some much needed downtime to relax and enjoy himself and free him of the mounting work fatigue that had been building up after three weeks of mind numbing work.

Work which now seem insignificant as he realised just how massive his job as a Rogue Trader was going to be, the scale between the two was incomparable and Riser had a mounting headache just thinking about it.

' _Still it might become easier once I get the hang of things and start doing real actual business but before that I really have to make sure that I am not overwhelmed by it all.'_ Riser thought as he lay in his bed, looking at the clock that read 3: 41 AM.

' _I think I should head back to the Imperium and start preparing for my first voyage as a Rogue Trader_.' Riser thought as he wondered about just where he was going to go for his first trip across the multiverse.

Riser thus got out of his bed and freshen himself up, then after getting dressed he looked at the clock that read 4:11 AM. After noting the time Riser closed his eyes and willed himselfback to the imperium, where he opened his eyes and saw that he was back in his small office in the imperiumand looking at a clock he saw that that read 2:21 PM.

"Hmmn, now that I think about it I think I left at this time that means the time dilation effect is greater than I thought." Riser mused as he looked at the clock. "Next time I better make sure that I note the date, time down to the very last second, so that I can calculate the exact time dilation ratio, knowing that would really help me a lot."

It was then Galius entered the room and Riser saw that Galius was oddly distressed judging by his body language and wanted to know what was the matter.

"Hello Galius, is something the matter?" Riser asked shaking Galius out of his thoughts.

"Yes, it is about your request to commission the Oberon Class Battleship as your first ship." Galius said his shoulders drooping in quite resignation, "…It has been approved."

Hearing that Riser could not help but smile knowing how extremely lucky he was to have his request approve, after all he was now going to command a Battleship, a freaking Battleship and not just any battleship, oh no, but a fully functional Space Battleship. It was like a dream come true and almost made him want to let loose a squeal but refrain from doing so seeing how Galius was acting all depressed and dishearten.

"This is great news Galius." Riser replied "But what is really eating you?"

"Riser" Galius sighed as he began to explain the circumstances, "no sane man or administrator would assign a powerful battleship to a newly minted Rogue Trader just like that. The fact that the high command and the others have approved your request means that they have ulterior motives one that they blatantly told me and even outright ordered me to share them with you, knowing that there was little you could do about it."

"And what that might be, Galius." Riser asked now intrigued as to what inevitable fate these people had seen for him.

Galius sighed again and continued on with his explanation. "It is simple really, the ship you commissioned is an Oberon-Class Battleship and like any other battleship it requires an obscene amount of wealth and resources to maintain which would easily sap any profit you make and more as you are still not well established yet and thus would need help in maintaining the battleship and paying the crew members to avoid mutiny.

The High Lords as such time would be willing to aid you in maintaining the ship but in return would bind you to so many favours and debts that they would own you in all but name. They as such would not only gain a battleship but also gain a Saint in their employ in the process which is a big coup in every possible way both militarily, politically and spiritually too.

The incredible amount of influence they could gain would easily make them one of the most powerful people in the Imperium and very few could stop them in the long run.

The battleship is nothing but a poisoned gift Riser and I urge you to reconsider another ship class." Galius said laying out the facts.

Riser while he could not see the full picture did understand some gist of the scheme that the High Lords were playing. But there were some few things that did not add up.

"Wait shouldn't my status as a Saint prevented them from moving against me?"

"Normally that would be the case." Galius agreed, "But not all the higher ups are truly convinced of your status as a Saint but are not going to go out their way to deprive you of your Sainthood and are instead scheming to bring you into their fold and have a Saint in their employ.

The very notion of trying to control a Saint of the Emperor should be Heresy of the Highest Order and the men should shoot themselves for even thinking about it but since they didn't that is just an indication of how precarious your position as a Saint truly is."

"So how do I convince them of my Sainthood?" Riser asked fully aware of the irony of his question.

"You have to perform great miracles, start a Holy Crusade and preach about the God Emperor and his ways and show the people that you are a Saint that The Emperor has chosen and imparted an essence of his power. Only then will you be able to convince the higher ups of your Sainthood." Galius said before shrugging, "Or at least garner enough influence to keep them off your back."

"Sounds easy enough." Riser said thinking that it was not that big of a matter or at least for now.

"Easy?!" Galius shouted, "Riser we are talking about the High Lords, men and women who have spent centuries building up a power base that only few polities in the galaxy could rival. We are talking about starting crusades whose success or failure would affect the entirety of the Imperium for years to come whose logistical planning could take decades to centuries and that is after centuries of riling up the population and garnering support of the masses to even get the permission from the High Lords to start the crusade. It is not easy Riser, nothing you say is easy."

"That I would agree." Riser nodded. "But this is easily remedied with some few trips to some planets and showcasing my powers to the masses after which I would easily garner support of the people and be on my merry way to starting a crusade."

"That is true and with your powers people would hardly be able to deny it even though many High Lords would still remain sceptical about it." Galius added.

"But the main objective would be to gather the support of the masses not of the High Lords and if I am able to convince enough people about my Sainthood the High Lords would be leery to make any moves against me." Riser concluded, now that he knew that his title as a Saint would not help much, Riser would have to focus on building up a political powerbase as soon as possible.

"Yes." Galius agreed but reminded Riser of the true problem at hand. "That still would not help you run the cost of maintaining a Battleship and in fact would affect your trading efforts and you would then have to ask some of the High Lords for help and you would be still caught in their trap. Either way both your Sainthood and your fledgling business are in danger and losing either one would leave you vulnerable to the mechanisms and plots of the High Lords."

"I know. Which is why I have to secure my business first and only then can I start worrying about my Sainthood." It was going to be a difficult task for sure but Riser found it less daunting than trying to start a Holy Crusade, especially when he thought about the logistics that were going to be involved in the crusade.

Yeah, he was better off sticking to building his trade empire for now.

Speaking of which, "Galius I have some questions regarding the technology I am allowed to manufacture." Riser said surprising the Artisan with the sudden change in topic.

"What questions?"

"I just wanted to know whether or not I am allowed to make some modifications to the designs and manufacture the modified items." Riser knew that the list of items he got was vast and could allow him to build a good trade empire but keeping in mind his parents lessons about business, manufacturing processes and the motto of the Phenex family, Riser wanted to make some few modifications to some of the items on the list to not only reduce their overall manufacturing costs but also increase their overall performance.

"That would depend on the type of modifications you want to make but even then you would have to get the permission of a Forge Master and get a Magos to create a prototype first. After which an Artisan would have to go over the design and give his final say on the matter." Galius replied intrigued at the possible modifications that Riser might be planning.

The Techpriest knew that Riser had a knack for science and technology and wanted to know what possible ideas were floating in his mind.

"What modifications do you have in mind Riser?" Galius asked unable to control his curiosity and as an Artisan he had to make sure that Riser's modifications were up to par and valid in the eyes of the Adeptus Mechnicus.

"Currently nothing concrete as I want to see what materials and resources I can use and easily obtain and go over the list once more to see which ones I should concentrate upon first. By doing so I would be able to plan out my budget and the cost and expenditure and see which ones would get me the most profits and allow me to maintain my Battleship."

That was the most logical choice; one which Galius approved but hoped that Riser did not make too much drastic unsanctioned modifications, the forces of Chaos could easily corrupt the technology if the modifications were too drastic and lowered the purity and warp resistance of the technology.

"I suppose that would mean that you are going to be spending time studying again." Galius said in a humorous tone.

"Yep and on top of my studies, I have to sign recruitment papers, order materials and items to fill up my inventory, meet up with my officers, meet up with the local merchants and sign trade deals and go out and mingle with the nobility least they get uppity and somehow come to the conclusion that I am offending them in some way using some bizarre logic." Riser sighed as his shoulders sagged under a brutal realisation of _just_ how much work he had. "I am not going to get any rest anytime soon."

"True." Galius admitted and seeing how busy Riser was going to be he had to wonder if the tales of the Rogue Traders living the life of luxury were but mere tales meant to lure naive aspirants into joining their almost mind-numbing busy lifestyle. Galius really could not see them not being busy all the time after getting a glimpse of how a Rogue Trader should operate as he kept on helping Riser.

The poor boy had a large work load on his shoulders and Galius knew that it was just going to keep on growing in the near future and his new officers would have to have excellent organisation and administrative capabilities to handle the immense amount of workload Riser would have to entrust them with so that he is not overworked to death.

It was only after seeing Riser working so much that Galius began to appreciate the work done but the Administratum that allowed the Imperium to keep running like it did, ensuring that the supplies were delivered on time, the supply convoys given adequate protection, recruiting personnel on time to replace those that retired or were killed in an unfortunate manner and more. It was really a humbling thing experience especially when Galius considered the scale of the Imperium and the level of numbers that were in play, which was why he had been devoting his spare time to smoothen the overall administrative process of his Forges which he admitted had increased the overall production efficiency by over 50% and there were still many places that Galius knew that could be improved upon. Galius then wondered just what else he could improve to make his forges more efficient.

Before the mind of the Artisan could stray any further Riser spoke and brought the man's mind back to the current topic at hand.

"Galius, I am going to need lots and lots of Enginseers and Tech Priests to man my Manufactorums and see to the maintenance of my ship. How many Engiseers would I exactly need and how am I going to get them?" Riser asked and Galius quietly approved his question as having the Mechanicus personnel on his ship would greatly reduce the overall maintenance costs and ensure that the ship ran at optimum capacity.

"You would need about 300,000-650,000 Engiseers and some 100,000 Techpriests who would bring their own Servitor work force numbering in a million plus with them to run an Oberon class Battleship at the least while the optimum numbers would be 1.4 million plus Engiseers and 300,000 Techpriests with 5million Servitors." Galius said and he was not surprised when Riser's eyes shot up in astonishment. People really do underestimate the number of personnel needed to run a ship no matter how automated they may be. "As for how much it would cost well that depends on the Forge World you would be recruiting from and the Tech Priest in charge. Currently though I am willing to send you some personnel from my own Temple but they won't be anywhere near the numbers you would need."

"Thank you Galius, I'll take you up on your offer and see to it if I can find some non-mechanicus personnel to fill in the gaps." Riser said feeling grateful that the Tech Priest was willing to help him on the matter. _'Come to think of it, he has been helping me a lot hasn't he? I must really do something for him.'_

"In return I am offering you 10% of my total manufactured goods for the next seven decades." Yes that sounded like a good offer.

"Riser!" Galius shouted as he heard the boy's offer. "You are already giving up 60% of your manufactured goods to the mechanicus, offering another 10% of your goods would almost see to it that you don't get any profit at all!"

"I know that but you have already done so much that it would be ungrateful of me not to at least offer you that much." Riser told the tech priest and Galius could hear the sincerity in his words and the Artisan knew that Riser would not let the matter drop so easily.

"Keep your 10% and just allow me the first Magos to examine all technologies and artefacts you find and give me the rights to manufacture them and we can call it even."

"I was going to do that even if you didn't ask for it." Riser said a miffed at being refused.

"Putting it down as an official deal would be better, as it would both allow me to keep supplying you with personnel and spare materials but also keep the other Tech Priests from interfering too much due to it being an official deal and all."

Riser reluctantly agreed but still felt that he should give Galius something more but the Tech Priest would not budge on the subject.

' _Well at least he did agree to something, that was start.'_ Riser thought, though he was keen on doing something else for Galius.

"Well, I leave you to examine the blueprints of your ship Riser and see if you need any more modifications or not." with that Galius left Riser with a dataslate containing the blueprints of the ship which Riser opened and began pouring over it and began browsing through the books and databases to see what modifications he could add and how he was much would the maintenance costs would be and from there set a profit goal and margin to keep maintaining the ship at full functionality.

"I am going to have to keep the ship at least 30% functionality for some time and be really be conservative in any fight I engage. Heck, it would be in my best interest to forgo battles altogether to conserve the ammo and barrel life of the cannons." Yeah, despite the fact that Riser was going to own a battleship, he was not going to be able to bring its full might to bear for some time.

That was quite the major downside but one that Riser had to bear until he was able to establish an economy that was able to handle the strain without collapsing on itself.

It also meant that Riser was going to have to quickly find a suitable system and start building his Empire fast, which brought its own set of problems like having a start-up population, laying down the infrastructure, selecting a suitable government type, setting up its own economic system and building up its defences. Those were but some few things Riser had to do and that was even before getting into things like recruiting and planning out proper training regimes for all administrative personnel and military forces.

For this Riser needed a base, a world to call his own where he was free to do as he like and implement all his plans with impunity. This would mean that he would have to ignore technological searches for now but that did not mean that Riser was going to ignore any technological findings and add them to his arsenal.

Seeing this Riser had to change the composition of his crew and add in more personnel that had really good construction knowledge and some agricultural knowledge to jumpstart the colony world and from there Riser had to see about establishing a proper government which while could function is his absence was still beholden to him and by extension the Imperium.

It was going to be hard work but that was a given as Riser was certain he was up to the challenge. He had to be, he had to be at least be capable of this much if he wanted to complete his contract with the Emperor.

' _It is going to be a really tough contract._ ' Riser mused as he thought of challenges he had to face in order to complete the contract and just how he was going to do so. It was really going to be the contact of a lifetime and could literally span thousands of years and who knew what kind of future he would be creating by fulfilling this contract.

' _Baby steps first Riser, baby steps.'_ Riser clamed himself down reining in his mind from wandering off and delve deep into plotting the distant plans for the future.

' _Yes, baby steps first, then, the universe.'_


End file.
